The tinkerer

When I was 15, my class packed us to a pond that was isolated and yucky but thriving with bugs and bacteria, worms and wriggles, fishes and frogs, flowers and foliage, and the odd critters of the mud. They all lived in harmony. A ate B who, in turn, chowed on C and so on. D produced certain chemicals that allowed E to survive and control the population of F. The wastes of E became food for C..... you get the idea. If you study biology, they call this an eco-system. It’s a great balance until you introduce, say, a big fish who finds D and its entire clan a tasty snack – the balance collapses and the pond dies.

Fast forward to 1987. The world was humming, the economy was good, people were going about their careers and young people entering the job market were planning for retirement…. until Black Monday!

Ten years later, the world was humming, the economy was good, people were going about their careers and currency brokers were busy buying and selling money….. until Tom Yam effect started in Thailand.

Ten years later, nothing happened! Well, it was actually delayed a year. The world was humming, people were busy buying and borrowing what they can’t afford..... and the balance collapsed, yet again.

It seems we never learn from illustrations around us. The financial ecology should have taught us that when the going is good, leave it alone and enjoy it. Don’t stir up the muck. Don’t introduce new stuff. But Man’s appetite for intervention and tinkering in the name of progress each time disturbs the balance and causes collapse. Now we are so accustomed to causing collapses that we are hell-bent on tinkering our tinkering. Well, then we shall see……