Too Big to Fail

Ecological Ignorance and Economic Collapse

In nature, nothing is too big to fail. In fact, big is bound to fail. To understand why that's so means stepping away from a prevailing set of beliefs that holds us in its sway, especially the deep conviction that we operate apart from nature's limits and rules. Full Story »

Posted by Dwight Rousu
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Subjects: U.S., Business
Topics: U.S. Economy
Member Tags: Bigness
Editorial Help
Posted by: Posted by Dwight Rousu - Apr 21, 2009 - 4:30 AM PDT
Content Type: Article
Edit Lock: This story can be edited
Edited by: Dwight Rousu - Apr 21, 2009 - 4:30 AM PDT
Dwight Rousu
4.5
by Dwight Rousu - Apr. 21, 2009

Ward looks at our economic mess and bigness from an ecological framework. This is a good read.

freeing an already big corporate system of almost all regulation so that it can grow even bigger does not, in fact, encourage creativity; it just hastens the consolidation ... More »

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Jack Dinkmeyer
4.6
by Jack Dinkmeyer - Apr. 22, 2009

Having covered disasters like Yellowstone. Having photographed and camped over most of the West in my lifetime. And sitting here now in the Colorado Rockies overlooking a scene in which millions of trees have been destroyed by the pine bark beetle, I completely agree with the author’s analogy that in nature major systems easily collapse, just as they do in the manmade world. And like nature, manmade failures wreak terrible consequences–most of which we have yet to experience. The author speaks of return to “business as usual.” If nature is any guide, there is no return to “business as usual.”

I never cease to marvel how a sky overflowing with stars on a dark night in the middle of beautiful isolation clears one’s thinking.

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Mindy Phypers
4.7
by Mindy Phypers - Apr. 24, 2009

Economists have ignored the lessons of the natural world and the long term view for too long and at the peril of humanity. The assumtion that what was too hard to quantify can safely be ignored (pretend it does not exist) can no longer be justified.

See Full Review » (16 answers)

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