Krugman writes: "In the Middle Ages, the call for a crusade to conquer the Holy Land was met with cries of 'Deus vult!' - God wills it. But did the crusaders really know what God wanted? Given how the venture turned out, apparently not."
Paul Krugman. (photo: NYT)
18 October 14
n the Middle Ages, the call for a crusade to conquer the Holy Land was met with cries of “Deus vult!” — God wills it. But did the crusaders really know what God wanted? Given how the venture turned out, apparently not.
Now, that was a long time ago, and, in the areas I write about, invocations of God’s presumed will are rare. You do, however, see a lot of policy crusades, and these are often justified with implicit cries of “Mercatus vult!” — the market wills it. But do those invoking the will of the market really know what markets want? Again, apparently not.
And the financial turmoil of the past few days has widened the gap between what we’re told must be done to appease the market and what markets actually seem to be asking for.
