Reading this article reminds me of the long and endless American debate on gun control. The United States has the highest gun ownership rate in the world and the highest per capita rate of firearm-related murders of all developed countries. ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/nation/gun-homicides-ownership/table/ ) I wish someone will care to or dare produce data to show how many these killings were in self defence - for which free ownership of guns is advocated. It may be also worthwhile to do some research on how many films would Hollywood make, if it was prevented from portraying violence involving guns. I believe the film industry in most countries will be reduced to insignificance, should there be a ban on scenes involving guns, narcotics, liquor, etc.



While stock markets have been avowedly created to promote savings and enable the small savers to invest in the real growth of the economy and benefit from it, these markets have hardly ever served the stated objectives. The real contribution of speculative markets of all kinds has been infusion of unwarranted volatility and frequent derailing of economic progress. Speculative institutions and activities have been primarily responsible for cancerous growths in many economies as manifested in mounting public debt, widening gap between the rich and the poor and heavy underutilisation of productive resources. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140718210034-17589031-healthy-vs-unhealthy-economic-growth Yet, economists including those like Prof. Shiller would rather advocate better control and not the abolition of speculative activities that eat in to the vitals of these economies.



It is time for economists to stand up and gracefully accept their mistakes and the wrong advices that they have been giving to governments. As of now, economic science remains completely obfuscated on the one hand by the use of zero sum mathematical models to the non zero sum economic phenomena and on the other by the veil of money, which hides the undercurrents in the real economy from the eyes of people. Blinded by mathematical models and monetary delusions, most economists invariably behave like the five blind men, who ended up describing the elephant based on the different parts of the elephant, which they were able to touch and feel. There is as yet no attempt to develop a holistic understanding of the real economic challenges facing the world.



Economic science has also fallen a victim to wanton oversimplification and convenience seeking. While economic progress depends on what happens in the real economy, people are becoming fascinated by the prospects of remote controlling the real economy through monetary instruments. While monetary remote controls have proven their penchant for damaging economies, these have been least effective in helping the economies out in troubled times. We are in 2015 and monetary machinations have been of no avail ever since 2008. This fact alone should wake up everyone and give them a sense of how futile it has been and it will be to rely on financial instruments to do the trick. There are no magical wands in real economics. Economic growth is all about keep producing more and more of goods and services and people keep buying more and more of goods and services with the help of incomes received from producing more. Monetary machinations can certainly disrupt the process, but will never be able to put the real economy back on its rails.



Just like there will be no gun control, there will be no control on speculation and all other vices that go with it. Economies might go to dogs but who cares since the rich will always find newer ways to make money even when the economy is going downhill.