Wild Inklings

Some Great Stories and Pics from 2009

At the end of each year The Boston Globe publishes an amazing series of news photographs from the past twelve months.

Here's the series from 2009:

Boston Globe's Year in Pictures, Part 1

Boston Globe's Year in Pictures, Part 2

Boston Globe's Year in Pictures, Part 3

And from Oddee, the oddest stories of 2009.

Oddest Stories of 2009

And how about AdFreak's freakiest commercials of 2009?

Freakiest Commercials of 2009

And last but not least, how about Crunks' top media errors of the year?

Top Media Errors of 2009

May 2010 be filled with as much unique and picturesque content as 2009!

Ethics and the Recession

Thousands of thinkers have analyzed the reasons for the recession we're in: loose credit, lack of fiscal regulation, mismatched business incentives, and more.

Fareed Zakaria, in an optimistic Newsweek Magazine (June 22) essay on capitalism, suggests another cause - a lack of ethics. Just because something isn't legally prohibited, he says, doesn't mean it's OK. Just because greed lurks in the background doesn't mean it should be pursued.

Personal ethics. One of the more powerful forces for progress and good, and a force worth remembering.

The Invisible Hand vs. The Engaged Hand

Today marks the birthdays of two people who profoundly influenced the course of economic affairs and business -- Adam Smith (1723-1790) and John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946).

Adam Smith was the proponent of The Invisible Hand, the cornerstone of "free market" economic theory. Let the markets take their course, said Adam Smith, and consumers and business will ultimately find the perfect levels of production, prices and satisfaction. Here's more info on Adam Smith and his theories.

John Maynard Keynes, on the other hand, was a strong proponent of government involvement and intervention in the economy. Spend public resources at deficit levels during times of economic stress, he said, and government will artificially stimulate spending, buying and production. Here's more info on Keynes and his theories.

The debate between the two camps represents one of the classic arguments of economic and business history. To this day, the debate rages on. And it's a curious fact of history that Smith and Keynes share the same birthday.