Now we all know that structure is something precious in unstable times like these, don’t we?

And like some of the gold diggers during the glod rushes of earlier times were more successful than others, some people are able to identify the precious stability, the macro trends of development within which all the instability occurs. Think of a fractal image on which a micro pattern is infinitely embedded in a macro version of itself. Since our lives take place in unstable micro patterns most of us can’t see how these patterns are actually floating on much more stable macro patterns. But some can. And I think, with reference to the fractals of social development, a lot of them are interested in economic history.

You wonder what I am talking about? OK – here’s your macro pattern detection test. What does the following dialogue, taken from www.inpassing.org, August 8th, 2002, tell you about the future…

“Do you really save money by paying her to follow you around and remember what you already have in your wardrobe?”

“Well yes, because she reminds me of things like that I already have a black skirt.”

– Two women outside Berkeley Bowl (which is a grocery store, not a bowling alley, oddly enough.)

And now I recommend to compare your thoughts to Berkeley’s Brad DeLong’s.