Irving Wladawsky-Berger on economic performance and social-progress.

Irving Wladawsky-Berger posted a wonderful piece back in January. I have only just seen it courtesy of a friend who like it.

The URL is http://blog.irvingwb.com/blog/2010/01/economic-performance-and-social-progress.html

I have commented as follows

I am so pleased to see this essay. The idea that society should be performing well when profits are up, the stockmarket is up and the GDP is up ... even though house foreclosures are at an all time high ... and unemployment is higher than at any time since the great depression ... and a pair of shoes that I used to buy for $10 are now priced at $650 ... and coffee that was 5 cents or 10 cents is now $2 ... and healthcare is 17% of GDP and consumer activity is 70% of GDP ... and everything we buy in the USA is now made abroad ... and some international companies have become bigger than most national economies ... and money is printed or worse merely created as a virtual electronic fiction! No wonder I like this essay!
Peter Burgess
Community Analytics (CA)

For the record ... I made three small edits to the above from the comment that was posted.

One of the issues that comes up in connection with Irving Wladawsky-Berger's essay is the slow progress of important things. The commission referred to in the essay (http://www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr/en/index.htm) was put together in 2008 but before the financial sector implosion was spinning out of control ... but the recommendations are still on a pace that would suggest the metrics are really quite fine, which I argue is just plain nonsense!

Peter Burgess