What murmurations teach us is that all these ideas of how markets are guided or directed - as wannabe prime minister Andy Burnham put it, we mustn’t be in ‘hock’ to the bond markets - are mistaken
Lovely image but I don't think it works. You write that "buyers and sellers track what adjacent buyers and sellers do, they tend to track in the same direction, and they stick close to the pack". Is this really what we're doing when shopping? At a supermarket, I'm not paying attention to fellow buyers; I'm making buying decisions based on my individual needs, and my decisions are affected by the prices set by the shop. The shop's prices are adjusted in response to demand from the "flock" of buyers, but the information flow from other buyers to me via price signals is both indirect and non-local.
Sure, but your tastes are informed by what's in the cultural zeitgeist. For example, until recently I was almost completely unaware of the ingredient gochujang, although I had probably had it in a few meals. Now, I won't fix a stir fry without it, even though mixing chopped chilli, ginger, garlic, soy, teriyaki and gochujang is a little too fusion to technically still call itself Korean. It's great with prawns, although I would definitely pre-fry the prawns and add them near the end to prevent the stir becoming as boiled mess. Also don't follow the instructions on those sachets. Sauces should be added gradually, so that they only coat the stir fry and don't drown it.
The crowding instinct of supermarkets used to annoy me no end. I would find a reasonable wine which nobody knew about and was very reasonably priced, only for the wine to be featured on some popular show, suddenly become more expensive, and quite often adulterated by inferior products from the same region.
Burnham (and Starmer et al) is a 'man of system" as desribed by Adam Smith in his Theory of Moral Sentiments. As Adam Smith put it, each of us has a principle of motion of our own altogether different from that which the legislature chooses to impress on us.
Because people do not naturally conform to a rigid, top-down framework, the 'man of system' must eventually resort to force, control, and mandates to make their system function.
Why does this lesson have to be relearned again and again?
Lovely image but I don't think it works. You write that "buyers and sellers track what adjacent buyers and sellers do, they tend to track in the same direction, and they stick close to the pack". Is this really what we're doing when shopping? At a supermarket, I'm not paying attention to fellow buyers; I'm making buying decisions based on my individual needs, and my decisions are affected by the prices set by the shop. The shop's prices are adjusted in response to demand from the "flock" of buyers, but the information flow from other buyers to me via price signals is both indirect and non-local.
Sure, but your tastes are informed by what's in the cultural zeitgeist. For example, until recently I was almost completely unaware of the ingredient gochujang, although I had probably had it in a few meals. Now, I won't fix a stir fry without it, even though mixing chopped chilli, ginger, garlic, soy, teriyaki and gochujang is a little too fusion to technically still call itself Korean. It's great with prawns, although I would definitely pre-fry the prawns and add them near the end to prevent the stir becoming as boiled mess. Also don't follow the instructions on those sachets. Sauces should be added gradually, so that they only coat the stir fry and don't drown it.
The crowding instinct of supermarkets used to annoy me no end. I would find a reasonable wine which nobody knew about and was very reasonably priced, only for the wine to be featured on some popular show, suddenly become more expensive, and quite often adulterated by inferior products from the same region.
Burnham (and Starmer et al) is a 'man of system" as desribed by Adam Smith in his Theory of Moral Sentiments. As Adam Smith put it, each of us has a principle of motion of our own altogether different from that which the legislature chooses to impress on us.
Because people do not naturally conform to a rigid, top-down framework, the 'man of system' must eventually resort to force, control, and mandates to make their system function.
Why does this lesson have to be relearned again and again?