Economics is an arena full of entrenched interests who exploit information asymmetry and regulatory capture to compete, at multiple scale factors. It is my strongly held opinion that rational analysis of "Economics" is not possible.

You've got the global scale, where nations compete, best described by Beau of the Fifth Column as a game of poker where everyone cheats to gain power.

You've got the corporate scale, where the boards of directors are political and overlap across most of the Fortune 500. Legally they are supposed to act in the Fiduciary interest of investors, but that is a polite fiction.

You've got the competing oligarchs, both foreign and domestic, engaged in their own egocentric excesses.

You've got the financial sector, which has distorted the price of money so hard that it effectively swallowed the economy, that the price signal is as effective as light trying to exit a black hole.

Not to mention the high frequency trading shenanigan's, where front running the market is accepted practice, bots with some huge bugs are given control over billions of dollars.

Oh, and the derivatives market, in which any corporation might have off the books obligations that exceed the annual sum of the world economy.

Economics is truly the dismal science.

PS: I fear I've been too optimistic in my outlook. ;-)