by
Mervyn King
Everyone on the island felt let down. The cult of finance had led to the contraction of a successful fishing industry. Too many talented people had been sucked into trading which, with the benefit of hindsight, was little more than a zero-sum activity generating little or not output. How could so many people have been taken in by the new world of finance?
a cute little parable about a fishing island in which everyone gets drawn into finance (betting on the fishing industry) and thus no one is left to actually fish
thought: is financialisation inevitable, because of the feedback loop? is it like a recessive gene that offers no fitness advantages and thus will eventually be selected out randomly if you wait long enough?