My alternate title for this piece was “And Then There Was One.” When White House economic “guru” Larry Summers announced that he would be resigning from Obama’s economic team leaving only Tim Giethner from the original dream team. Summers exit was preceded by Peter Orszag and more recently Christina Romer abandoning the sinking Bad Ship Obama. I remember that these folks were touted as the best and brightest and best suited to lead us out of our recession.
A famous economic fable by Henry Hazlitt is the Broken Window Fallacy where folks believe that there is economic stimulus achieved by breaking the window of a baker shop forcing the owner to replace the glass. The Crusty Conundrum is my foray into economic fallacies…
Our story starts at the Ché Pizza Parlor, a new age pizza parlor in that they make socially responsible pizza and deliver them in hybrid compact cars. One day the owner was in a pinch when one of her delivery persons called off to go protest something. You see Ché Pizza provided its employees with “social justice” time much like traditional employers provided vacation or leave time. Left with no other options the owner donned her cap and started to make deliveries.
I had recently been “in search of explanations for everyday enigmas” when I happened upon a book by Robert H. Frank
