Elders cower

[Alan Greenspan (born March 6, 1926 in New York City) is an American economist and was the Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006... First appointed Fed chairman by President Ronald Reagan in August 1987, he was reappointed at successive four-year intervals until retiring on January 31, 2006 after the second-longest tenure in the position...
“In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working,” Waxman said. “Absolutely, precisely,” Greenspan replied. “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.” [66] Greenspan admitted fault in opposing regulation of derivatives and acknowledged that financial institutions didn't protect shareholders and investments as well as he expected. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

[The most compelling rebuttal of the rational model, paradoxically, was delivered by the ultimate rationalist, Alan Greenspan. "I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders," the former Fed chairman told Congress last October. 'The Death of 'Rational Man' By David Ignatius > washingtonpost.com > Columns > Sunday, February 8, 2009]

[Marginal Revolution - Do influential people develop more conventional opinions? I believe there is a good paper on this topic. It explains why artists sell out as they become famous and the theory applies to thinkers as well!
ABSTRACT: Artists face choices between the pecuniary benefits of selling to the market and the non-pecuniary benefits of creating to please their own tastes. We examine how changes in wages, lump sum income, and capital-labor ratios affect the artist's pursuit of self-satisfaction versus market sales. Using our model of labor supply as a guide, we consider the economic forces behind the high/low culture split, why some artistic media offer greater scope for the avant-garde than others, why so many artists dislike the market, and how economic growth and taxation affect the quantity and form of different kinds of art.
Cowen, Tyler and Alexander Tabarrok. 2000. An Economic Theory of Avant-Garde and Popular Art, or High and Low Culture. Southern Economic Journal 67(2): 232-253.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1061469 Posted by: Alex Tabarrok at Mar 16, 2009 8:52:28 AM]

[Re: Against the grain and With the Grain: A Short Review of "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" by J. Kepler
by Tony Clifton on Mon 16 Mar 2009 10:25 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link
Kep, Once again although we disagree about the book, I want to express high regards for you speaking out against the extreme reactions to it and condemning the criminal and court cases (a similar thumbs up to Rakesh) I mention this because there are many people, even those considered Elders in the IY community, who feel the same way as you -some of whom even like the book- but refuse to speak out about the violent reactions of those persecuting the author. Its a great disappointment to see those people either cower or play the politics of playing both sides of the fence, because they see personal advantage in it. One thing about IY being a yoga of the world is I never got the sense that either SA/M advised against taking action when injustices arose. Tony Reply]

Fixed tenures and transfers are easy antidotes against potential maladies emerging out of survival instinct. [TNM]