Introduction Have you ever heard of someone coming down with a severe headache, taking a large dose of headache medicine, and feeling just fine in a couple of hours? The next day, the same thing occurs. The person checks into the hospital several weeks later to find out they have brain cancer. Four days later, … Continue reading Systemic Behavior Grows Better
The System Pushes Back
Introduction While in college, I had an American history professor who said that when a bully pushed a kid into a corner and kept pushing him, the kid would eventually push back (he phrased it a bit more crudely, but adults might read this article). You might have guessed that he told this story to … Continue reading The System Pushes Back
Yesterday’s Solutions
Introduction Systems have “feedbacks,” or a transfer of information, that we frequently do not recognize when they occur. For example, when you flip a lightswitch the light comes on. That gives us information that the switch, the electricity, and the light bulb are all working. When we fill a bathtub, we see the water level … Continue reading Yesterday’s Solutions
Systems Theories
A better approach than analytic thinking. Introduction While serving in the Army in South Korea during the mid-1960s, I operated a petroleum tank farm. As with most equipment in Korea at the time, those tanks were in pretty shoddy condition. One day, the sergeant who ran the petroleum operation reported to me that one of … Continue reading Systems Theories
Preliminary Introduction to Systems Thinking
My Return to Publishing I apologize to my regular readers for my extended absence. I have had a lot of accidents and mishaps over the last several weeks that have prevented me from writing regularly. The clincher, however, was that my computer crashed. I won’t go into much detail, but it was bad enough that … Continue reading Preliminary Introduction to Systems Thinking
Levels of Understanding Systems
We can understand the performance of systems at three basic levels. The three levels at which we can understand the performance of systems consist of Events, Patterns of Behavior, and Systemic Structure. Working from the bottom up, each level provides more knowledge about what influences the system's behavior. This diagram shows the direction of influence—most … Continue reading Levels of Understanding Systems
Graphic Comparisons
Statistical charts provide one of the most effective tools for conveying information (and misinformation) When a commentator presents a graph as "proof" of their argument, view it with great care. Graphics can help describe patterns of behavior and provide evident of structural connections, but they never prove anything. Scientists must continually subject theoretical "proofs" to … Continue reading Graphic Comparisons
Effects of Quantitative Easing
Introduction Last week, I published an article that hinted at the possibility that drawing conclusions from too little data can be misleading. I offered as an example a graph of the money supply (M2) with no comparison data. Some might conclude from that one graph that The Fed has been steadily expanding the money supply … Continue reading Effects of Quantitative Easing
Total Reserves and Excess Reserves
Introduction This article has more to do with clear thinking than it does about the important, but widely misunderstood, subjects of money and banking. When one of the many talking heads on YouTube and elsewhere makes definitive statements about money and banking, and the federal reserve stop to ask yourself whether all the pieces actually … Continue reading Total Reserves and Excess Reserves
Money Creation Explained No. 1
Introduction I have on my schedule the writing of an article about the creation of money. Before starting this note, I watched a couple of videos about money and bonds. These presentations contain numerous errors that call the validity of the entire presentation into question. I want to offer some new information that readers can … Continue reading Money Creation Explained No. 1