Try to Never Confuse Luck with Skill

I came across that suggestion the other day, and, single-minded cretin that I am often (with reason) accused of being, thought of the ten of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of small and quiet decisions that households across this nation make on a daily and weekly basis as the economic tides rise and fall and threaten by so doing to pull so many of us under. 

A non-economist acquaintance once shared with me 'when you're out of a job, it's a recession; when I'm out of a job, it's a depression' and I suspect there's more to that than meets the eye. Every day the Dow Jones Industrial Average does something and some people smile and others grimace and various politicians shout and point about it (usually called leadership by their followers) and I have close to no idea what to make of the fluctuations and undulations. 

I don't think I'm alone. We all assume or did until it turned out the whole house of cards decided to reshuffle itself, that someone somewhere knew and understood what it was we were doing for most of the last decade and a half. Like Wimpy, offering to gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today knowing full well we would have no money on Tuesday, we just kept adding days to the calendar and hoped Tuesday wouldn't arrive (not counting today of course). 

When the economic ship of state started taking on water, I didn't really understand the big picture and, like so many, haven't been as successful as I'd like in appreciating the larger picture and fuller impact. Why isn't it all this just Accidental Excellence (like this variant)?

Y'know, when we got it right, we had no idea what we did to produce those positive results so, not surprisingly we couldn't duplicate them, so when things started to go south, we went with them. It's hard to not be superstitious, wash your face and hands until you get the bill at the end of the month for soap and water. 

In times of stress we rely more on routines, they offer us the appearance of the familiar, the known and the comfortable and serve, in their way, as a mantra against a world we cannot otherwise manage.
-bill kenny