Boom and Bust

'Among economic systems capitalism is the manic-depressive patient: exuberance, unbridled optimism, and euphoria-followed by gloom, listlessness, and depression. But no matter how often the cycle is repeated the patient always believes the latest boom will last forever, only to feel foolish again when the bubble bursts. And no matter how often the patient reverts to manic behavior when taken off medication, the economic “psychiatric” establishment eventually succumbs to the patient's pleas to be taken off medication during the “ups”-freeing the exuberant economy from policy restraints-only to insist on placing the patient back on meds- re-application of necessary policy protections-when the unmedicated patient inevitably “crashes.”'