Word: paradoxical
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...write that love is never enough to save us. Why? The experience of love - yes, it's mind-expanding and soul-expanding, but it cannot save us from loneliness or mortality. That's a paradox because we hope it will...
This is what some economists call the paradox of thrift. The notion is generally credited to Englishman John Maynard Keynes--seemingly the source of every important economic idea these days--although he doesn't appear to have actually used the phrase. Paul McCulley, an economist and portfolio manager at bond giant Pimco, defines it like this: "If we all individually cut our spending in an attempt to increase individual savings, then our collective savings will paradoxically fall because one person's spending is another's income--the fountain from which savings flow." (See the top 10 financial collapses...
This kind of behavior, contends McCulley, is what the paradox of thrift demands. "Uncle Sam has got to go the other direction and lever up his balance sheet and actually spend money," he says. Simply standing by and letting the downward economic spiral worsen strikes him as "inconsistent with a civilized society...
...right. Virtually all economists agree that there is no paradox of thrift in the long run. Saving stimulates investment. Careful stewardship of resources brings prosperity. Frugality is its own reward. Just not right this second...
There is, however, a hopeful double paradox within this daunting challenge. For the first time in recent history, the U.S. and China find themselves with a demonstrably common interest. Equally significant, as the self-confidence and influence of the U.S. waned under the Bush Administration, the Sino-U.S. playing field has become more level than ever before. When it comes to climate change, we are both sinners before the Lord. This state of parity, however accidentally it may have been arrived at, presents a new psychological climate where the kind of equal partnership for which the Chinese have long...