The following is incoherent but not without slivers of ideas.
<p>I have been trying to apply the perspective of biological evolution to economics.
How does the ‘ecology’ of financial and corporate institutions evolve?
What does the evolutionary perspective tell us?
<p>I have always believed that you can’t make a living except by some combination of these tactics:<ul>
<li>theft
<li>rent seeking
<li>producing wealth</ul>
I distinguish between theft and rent seeking by noting that rent seeking, be definition, is legal.
In any case the distinction may not be vital for these considerations.
<p>I want to jump to a conclusion and most will not want to follow me, so I will record it here:<ul>
Much, but not all, of today’s complex financial derivatives, does not create wealth.</ul>
Some will presume that I want to outlaw them but I am not claiming that they were responsible for recent financial mayhem, although they were involved.
My hypothesis is advice to investors, not legislators.
I exonerate them in my mind because without them simpler instruments would have been used for the same mayhem.
Roughly the problem was speculation on the price of housing; it is good that people can speculate even though speculation is sometime harmful.
Shorting is speculation and is the best antidote to speculation we have.
It is the only non governmental antidote we have and the only one I trust.