I would very much agree with Mr Davies and his analysis - and I do agree for whatsoever that economics need to step out from their "Operational Manual Approach" and their Dogmatic Nature, under which their "believers", "followers", "zealots" and "fighters of the cause" tend to be trained to handle the questions involved - if only I could oversee the very fact that currently we are not in an Era of Normal Politics (Economics is part of Politics, even if nowadays the situation seems to be reversed so that Politics become part of Economics). As Trichet puts it in an article the other day, here on this site, we live in an era of "politics with other means", we - in other words - live in an Era of War, where "crisis" is just an "operation" for those who control the financial means and the Institutional Power that would allow them to capitalize other people's losses in terms of economic and political power allocations, as their own profits. Mr Davies states out the very obvious for any scientist of International Politics, Economic History and/or Diplomatic History Faculty or Department: Theories and Ideologies, no matter how "stiff" they tend to appear and no matter the aims they try to fulfill, can never deliver their desired results if they are not willing to incorporate to their basic doctrines the human factor and its irrational behavior which tends to move in parallel with social and personal uncertainty.

Throughout the centuries, from Ancient Greek Heraklitus who defined war as the continuation of politics with other means, till nowadays, all scholars have always defined war as a political instrument seeking to maximize one's territory, assets and populations, with means and instruments that only get the "physical form" of military power when all other have failed: therefor war is a clear manifestation of power allocations and can be delivered with a variety of "tools", with military imposition standing as the "last resort of the means". International Politics from the time of Bertrand Russell, differentiates the three dynamic manifestations of Power and adopted them as a main point of reference: the Power is divided to the Economic Power, Power to form (your constituency's or other people's constituencies') the Public Opinion and the Military Power.

So, while Economic Power of certain groups (see: "banksters", "gunsters" and "poisson masters") got completely out of proportion, scale and reach; while in the same time the very same people or their friends ("World Media Emperors") maximized their Power to form the World Public Opinion towards promoting and defending their own agenda (which lack public support and democratic legitimization) of a New World "Corporatocracy" (as defined by prof. Sachs); and after a Bush Jr decade which transmitted to the world financial sector a world crisis that can fit in the Milton Friedman's Doctrinal Advice of "crisis exploitation towards the creation of a neoliberal world", I think that the best way Economists could serve the public nowadays is by stating out, loud and clear, that there is a world war "with other means" going on. Economists should - at last! - recognize the very fact there is a "counter-revolution of the 1%" is in operational deployment and that all economic "decisions" the world political and economic leaders need to adopt in order to deliver a positive service to their public - at least if we all agree that peace, prosperity and sustainable development is of major importance than financial gains of specific groupings - is in completely different direction from the one which is being imposed to all governments unwilling or unable to defend themselves from the "banksters' hits", from those same banksters who deliver the hits!

Politicians should be re-invited to step in World Politics exactly as Obama did. Given that economists for quite five decades (exactly after Keynnes) were mainly advising politicians to step out from economic decisions and leave the "open market" regulate itself, - which mainly took us at the cliffs we stand today, at the very edge I would say - acknowledging the mistakes of the past would be a first step towards becoming relevant to the problem, helpful to the solutions and inspiring as a scientific faculty of human interactions with much to offer, rather than much to gain...

Cause, despite what one thinks of politicians and economists nowadays and whether they manage to do profit or not due to the crisis (we should all bear in mind that some people's losses are other people's gains, even when infrastructure and concrete financial means geet destroyed - this is just an "investment" as far as it delivers maximized results in the future), which mainly depends on the interests each one defends and the capacities he maintain to defend and promote them, if we all, as people of the world and International Community do not learn from the lessons of the past - as the article here clearly proposes - we will not manage to avoid the pains of the past. History delivers it "summer school lessons" in a very violent manner, for those failing to "learn its lessons" in the first term. Currently, due to economists as well, the whole Humanity seems to have failed in the first term and gets its lessons violently, during summer, while the time "flies" very very rapidly. History is on the run, while the "summer" is ending. Should in the coming months we all fail to the "exams" (stabilizing world economy without killing each other), History will deliver our "grades" with a "Hammer", an "Axe" and some bombs. Afterwards, economists will start explaining what has happened and why it was impossible to predict a so absurd development. But this will only be their effort to justify their incompetence when their knowledge was mostly needed. Just like in the '30s, as History will remind them then.

I really hope they (economists) prove me wrong and irrelevant with my analysis and they prove themselves more relevant to the subject, providing the necessary tools to overcome the current "acts of war" of other means' origin with their proposals. However, if they do not first recognize we are in an Era of Low Intensity War, till it gets to become a World War of All Intensities, I strongly argue they will not be in place to be of any relevance to our problems. Cause, as Howard Davies implies, History is hardly an economic preoccupation, even if it should be.