Financial regulators were 'party poopers'

Economics is a highly technical subject that can make it difficult for anyone trying to explain things like the recent financial crisis to a general audience.

The previous post showed Vince Cable, former chief economist at Shell, talking about it as a heart attack still in need of steroids.

Here's another economist who knows how to make the most of imagery. Talking about the origins of the crisis, Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz is explaining the origins of the crisis - when there was a party going on that got out of hand because the regulators didn't want to be 'party poopers'.

Like all imagery, it's not literally true, but the point comes across with force and clarity.


2 comments:

Janice Tomich said...

You might enjoy the following imagery from the American comedian Robin Williams' perspective.

He calls American financial institution's cash flow bailouts "Economic freebasing".

Good for a laugh if it wasn't so sad.

Max Atkinson said...

Thanks for your comment, which has an interesting edge to it - namely that the metaphor you quote is, I suspect, from baseball, and therefore doesn't mean much to my English ears. I'm all in favor of sporting imagery, but try to resist inflicting cricketing metaphors and similes on Americans!