[arete]

It's the Austrian school, Tulac. No offense meant, but thanks for cheering me up... Boom-bust cycles have got a lot more to do with human greed and stupidity. To look at game theory: collective irrationality wins over collective rationality most of the time. You can try to change human nature, but the truth is that the possibility of the quick buck, mutatis mutandis, will win over a long-term investment strategy every time. You cannot ceteris paribus human greed. It goes back to the prisoner's dilemma. Most people will simply prefer short-sighted personal gain over wide-reaching altruism. You can talk yourself into believing the opposite until you feel quite cosy, but then people will turn on you and bite you in the ass... Not even Adam Smith's invisible hand will save us from another great depression happening in our lifetimes. At the rate we're going, dodgy banking practices and over-lending and all, I rather feel we'll see it sooner rather than later.