Origin of Crisis (part 1)

I was listening to BBC radio on Saturday and the presenter was interviewing an economist about the financial crisis. In answering the presenter's question on whether the recent episodes in the financial world has any impact on future economic research works, the economist predicted that there will be a shift away from social topics such as 'Sumo wrestlers' to more macro-economic issues.

Obviously, he was referring to the book, 'Freakonomics', in which there is a chapter on the author's research into the behavioural science of Sumo wrestlers. Indirectly, he implied that these are peripheral studies which may not mean much in steering the future world economic direction.

I cannot disagree with his view more. The ideas behind Freakonomics are extremely relevant to to present economic mess and, dare I even suggest, probably the origin of the crisis.

More later...