The numbers game - 2 big bangs... one big mess

摘要

We have a problem with a lack of mass (or liquidity?) in the universe from the first big bang that occurred circa 15 billion years ago. The Hadron collider has been designed to provide us with some new insights into the origins of the universe by unlocking the mysteries of the strange world that is sub-atomic particle physics. But for now lets set this fabulous experiment to one side and concentrate on the fallout from the second big bang that occurred circa 1986.The recent gymnastics in the banking system have generated a veritable cornucopia of hypothesis as to what went wrong and who should now be consigned to the stocks. Fred and Fanny, spivs and speculators, buccaneering be-knighted bankers, those damn productive Chinese with their $2 trillion export surplus and of course, G. Dubya Bush. Financial commentators with a reputation for sober analysis,have been forced to stretch hyperbole beyond its natural elasticity.These economists appear to be truly astounded by what has happened, for they all come from the same tradition that has imbued them - like Voltaire's Candide - with an intrinsic belief that the so called, 'free market' is 'the best of all possible worlds'.