>> There are many people like Gerhard who take the current economic 
>> situation
>> as an opportunity to gloat -- "where's your magic Invisible Hand now?"

>> They have a point, of course. What they don't seem to realize, however, 
>> is
>> that the alternative is much worse.

> So the invisible hand occasionally give you a slap for being stupid. 
> Still
> works.

I'm sure Gerhard will feel misrepresented :-).

But the slapping is indeed part of the hand at work - it rewards greed 
appropriately in due course. On average at least. And rewarded greed is what 
we are seeing at present. Alas, those who reap the reward may not be those 
who had the greed. The hand is not averse to allowing luck to sneak through.

One cannot in fact argue that the hand doesn't work, because what the model 
it represents really says is 'what works works'. By definition it cannot be 
falsified*. Whether it does the most good (TMG) for the total population is 
necessarly debateable. Necessarily because what constitutes TMG is debated 
and there are many opinions of what TMG is in any given situation. As even 
the great hand [TM] cannot optimise all or even many TMGs at once it doesn't 
try or care. It just does what it does and those who like what it typically 
does say THIS is TMG for me and, of course, MUST [TM} therefore be TMG for 
everyone else, so the hand must be marvellous. And, for them, it is.

* Very like another current paradigm whose hallowed name I must not 
breather, even in OT, for fear of bringing forth howls of protest. Said 
paradigm essentially says that the most successful succeed. Definition of 
'successful' is not required when you have such a tautology to turn to.


     Russell

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