The Blind Spot on Economic Thought

A blog entry from Otto Scharmer. AS worldwide -included Obama Adminstration no real leverage for overcoming the economic and financial crisis is offered or considered.
And overcoming this crisis (Plus true devleopment maps and roadmaps for foreign policy and crucial blueprints for education and healthcare for example) is essential.

The Blind Spot on Economic Thought


The crisis of our time is not about a financial bankruptcy (which is part of the symptom). the crisis of our time is about an intellectual bankruptcy (which has more to do with the underlying root issue): the bankruptcy of contemporary economic thought. not only was the entire mainstream of economic thought caught by surprise when the meltdown started to happen in Fall 08. even now, several months into the depression economics, we are still at a loss. millions of words. talkshows. and detailed expert analysis. yes, we know a lot about all the details. but what do we really know? what do we really know about what is going on and what is going to happen and what is required of us to do now?

When i watch the current conversation i am almost in disbelieve how narrow the analytical economic frameworks are that we apply to understanding the current situation: more markets was the mantram yesterday. more government is the mantram today (although the obama administration still does not dare to use the N word–nationalization–which probably only means that the nationalization, which is going to come anyway, will come a little later, a little less voluntarily (that is, forced upon by circumstances) and a lot more expensive (trillions more).

What strikes me is how conventional the economic thought is that the current public discussion (including the Obama economic team) is applying to the situation. no one doubts that stimuli packages, re-regulation and temporary nationalization of banks are necessary. but is that all we can do? this still sounds like a 20th century mindset (markets vs. government) applied to a 21st century type of challenge (meltdown). what we will probably find out soon is that this no longer works. we cannot be successful by applying 20th century mindsets to 21st century problems. we need to approach problems of our age in new ways. in ways that illuminate the blind spot of contemporary economic thought: collective awareness based leadership.


Read more…