>>Take the fact that no solution was offered as a hint that world leaders are, really, clueless.
>
>Are they **really** clueless OR are they so much in the pockets of corporate leaders that they're defence is to appear clueless???

Probably a little of both.

>>Talking about economy, one of Heinlein's characters said "Imagine controlling a machine through positive feedback". Sometimes, it indeed seems as if the "solutions" offered are, in effect, positive feedback.
>
>You mean like the positive feedback (based on nothing but exhuberance) that fuelled the ".com craze"?

Perhaps. "Positive feedback" and "negative feedback" are actually technical term, which many readers might not know very well: For instance, if you drive your car on the highway, and see that it is going too much to the right, you turn your steering wheel to the left. Since the adjustment is in the direction opposite to the "excess", the feedback is "negative". Many machines need negative feedback, to work correctly. Now, try to imagine what happens if you replace the negative feedback with positive feedback.