Perspectives

We each have one. A perspective on the world, or state, community, job, religion, whatever.

That perspective is built slowly over time. It is an accumulation of facts and ideas gained over time in a myriad of situations and experiences. Some are felt. Some are known by the hard edge of truth. Some are shared by trusted companions and family members. But the most valuable are the perspectives crafted by the self carefully after years of examination and study.

Study of anything comes with discipline. It is followed because we must know. Where do the facts lead me? Why are they important? Why do they make a difference in my mind? And what other questions do they answer that I don’t know how to ask yet?

Knowing answers is nothing. Knowing questions is primary. We musts know what questions to ask and why before we go searching for answers. Finding something of interest is not a healthy formation of an answer in search of a question.

Often, we get this process backward. I understand why. We need to have the strength to avoid the pitfall of finding questions that fit what we think are the answers. Many companies get this wrong. They come up with products or services without knowing what need they fill. Pet rocks is an example. Fads and fancies, too, provide many an example.

Politics, ideologies, value structures and religion are rife with answers coming before questions.

Truth comes from studying reality. Facts. Relationships among facts. Cause. Effect. Result.

It takes commitment and discipline to pursue truth. A perspective built on trash crumbles in time as the rot compresses the layers below.

Being right or correct is not the point. Knowing the facts and how they knit together as truth is the point. Elusive, too, truth is challenged on all fronts, and challenges those fronts right back.

When I started college, I thought I knew how the economy worked. I studied economic theory as a freshman and continued through my senior year. I used that knowledge throughout my life in professions that served me and my employers well.

What I learned in freshman year is how the economy actually works and why so many people get it wrong. Being wrong isn’t the immediate problem. The problem comes when so many people build theory and policy on wrong facts. It leads to disasters that people pay for in human terms.

Economic theory properly used drives solid policy and practice. Currently, the Federal Reserve is using it properly. Wall Street has it wrong a lot of the time. That’s what happens when the focus is on supply and demand markets. Underlying reality is far more important. These are the fundamentals most often ignored on Wall Street.

And congress? Whew! Do they ever get it wrong, and often at the wrong time as well. Fumbled attempts at setting policy often does more damage than good. But then, politics is based on money and power, not facts. That’s the rub!

Perspectives have little value unless they are anchored in fact. And then used properly. All else is noise.

We’ve just exited a long season of noise. Time to turn on the quiet and study deeply. The answers will be found there.

November 11, 2020