The Cogs Blog

  

Blog 9   Global Birdseye 1

As the law of money now operates not just locally and nationally, but on a vast global scale, here’s a thought or two about the econopolitical moon’s eye view, starting with.

The mini and the maxi.  I have just returned from New Zealand. Went to Christchurch again. What a change from 2013. Instead of an earthquake-devastated cityscape of damaged buildings and wreckage-cleared downtown blocks from the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, the dominant feature in 2015 was a forest of cranes — rebuilding. There were jobs aplenty especially in the wreckage-removal, design, and reconstruction trades. 

But here’s a tourists-eye mini observation: accommodation has not kept up with the inflow of workers and money. So you have a classic local example of the law of supply and demand — lodgings, from hotels to backpackers hostels, fully occupied, and more expensive than in 2013. 

A macro economic feature demonstrated in Christchurch, on the other hand, I assume, is the great growth in the economy. Growth That’s a good thing, isn’t it? Growing the economy, yes. If I were a number-cruncher economist, rather than a mere historical observer, I could be producing statistics to prove how good the earthquake had been for the the city. 

And surely it would be tempting to conclude that the two or three hundred people who were unfortunate collateral damage of the earthquake are a small price to pay for the current prosperity of the survivors, and for the great new, earthquake-proof city which is being created.

Money is certainly moving, from the taxpayers (municipal and national) to the shareholders of the many companies engaged in the reconstruction.

Would you call that the movement of wealth from borrowers to lenders? Hey, that’s the law of money!. Money goes where money is.

Just a thought.

Well, I might add one more thought to anticipate the next blog. What other human activity is an even bigger and longer-lasting destroyer-creator than an earthquake, and transfers even more wealth? Look around the world, and see what you can see. Think “collateral damage.”

Till the next blog. Just breath deep of the good air around you.