Ouroboros by Garet Garrett

http://mises.org/books/ouroboros.pdf

"EITHER the machine has a meaning to
life [nature] that we have not yet been able to interpret
in a rational manner or it is itself
a manifestation of life and therefore mysterious.
We have seen it grow. We know
it to be the exterior reality of our own
ideas. Thus we are very familiar with it>
as with our arms and legs, and see it in
much the same way—that is to say, imperfectly
and in some aspects not at ail-"


I think a careful analysis of this text is time suited to the troubles that we face, and We hear meaning the world economy, and not just the US economy.

The idea is simple: the economy is not backed by gold or fiduciary consensus, but rather food and labor, and labor being extensible to machine power as well as man power.

The desire to produce takes over. It takes over because it is organic, because it is based upon desire and because it is based on natural laws, it becomes autonomous, the rule of nature.

The problem is one of interdependency. The interdependency creates co-dependency. The co-dependency creates as system where the system itself is in control.

Now the problem isn't black and white, you don't get rid of the system, in fact the solution is even simpler than the argument: Fair Trade. I think if you take a careful look at this book you will find it highly relevant to the problems we're facing in the global economy today: abstraction.

The currency is based on mutual trust and faith that the value of it is real, and when that is lost, and the value of the currency is lost then the problem no longer becomes currency and economy, it becomes food and basic living conditions sustainable to life.

This is what we face. And herein lies a solution.

Ideas have their own time, I think the time for this one is now.