The center cannot hold.

Take a corporate policy that costs $X million, but without which the company would go bankrupt in 5 years. Sooner or later, someone will realize they can 'save the company money' by eliminating that policy and obfuscating or rationalizing the long-term risk. By the time the company goes under, that person is two higher-paying jobs away.

In other words, capitalism has no mechanism to deal with long-term strategy. Once a market matures, to keep a profit, companies have to either: use governmental pressure or market dominance to maintain a monopoly or oligopoly ('anti-net neutrality'), expand iinto other markets, or start cutting. The first ends the free market; the second rarely works and only prolongs the problem; the third results in rewarding short-term expedients at high long-term costs.

Meanwhile, the whole world economic system is built on similar principles, so we're at the mercy of speculation on stock prices. And Greenspan should know we've had boom-bust cycles for centuries. You don't need a Nobel to figure this out.

And Bush is still president.

Sorry about your Job, Tex. I hope it works out for you.