Day 25

K left for a weekend in West Palm Beach, FL with a couple of high school friends this morning and I took a marathon walk to Arlington National Cemetery and the old Custis-Lee home. This was a great walk but the mistake was in not having anywhere I could really rest, eat lunch and read. The cemetery does not lend itself to that, nor do the grounds at Arlington House ("under renovation" - probably since 1865). So I made my way back to the National Mall and had lunch behind the Smithsonian at 2:00 PM and read. I'm almost finished with Catton but have just gotten to the start of Tainter's argument. For a break in the ongoing thread of thought I had started re-reading Robert Heilbroner's _The Worldly Philosophers: the Lives and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers_. I knew it was not deep but have always enjoyed it in the past as a decent overview. But today I was struck by how orthodox (in the Rand/Greenspan/Chicago school of economic theory) this book is. Each economist studied is analyzed in contrast to their understanding of traditional market dynamics - thus we start with Adam Smith and the "invisible hand" and conclude with Joseph Schumpeter and the situation at mid century last (the book was originally written in 1953 and updated in 1961, the year I started college and first read it).

It is quite clear that Heilbroner would not have believed the recent unannounced collapse of the world economy could have occurred. He thinks the system is understood well enough that the safeguards we have (had!) in place will prevent any significant market breakdown. Indeed, a "breakdown" would be in the social/political system imposed on the market and not the market itself - and there is, indeed, room for argument in that thesis if one takes the terms of argument at face value as presented. But then, the idea that there is a "market" independent of the social/political sphere that makes and enforces law, prints and supports currency, and regulates commerce is simply an intellectual fantasy, as is much that passes for significant in "intellectual" history.

But in keeping with the free market theory that postulates all market activity as based on the motivated self-interest of each participant, I will be searching for new shoes tomorrow. My current ones are falling apart. Since I have been walking so much I have put an extra strain on my shoes and they are showing it. Today I had a piece of gravel work through the sole of my right shoe and then noticed that the top stitching of the left shoe was coming undone. Falling apart! Time for new shoes. Stimulate the economy.