Lose the Pablum. Stop Dithering.

Posted by: Tom Keene on January 24, 2012

Countries should fight rising inequality with policies that simultaneously curb the income gap between rich and poor while boosting economic growth.

—Reducing Inequality While Boosting Economic Growth is Possible, OECD Chief Economist Pier Carlo Padoan, via e-mail, 23 January 2012.

No kidding.

The e-mails are pouring in with various shades of “who cares about elites dithering in Davos.” There is a modest set of reasons for this angst and anxiety. (The notes are more heated than last year.)

I will cut to the chase, writing at early-morning Heathrow.

The days are long over where the above totally mundane and predictable language can be considered, written and read.

Individual and institutional elites must stop with average boilerplate for average times.

Five years into crisis, and still in crisis, the thinking world is out of patience. And profoundly, everyone is marginally smarter than they were in 2006. The good economists at the OECD (replace institution as you choose) mean well.

This 2012, those not attending Davos-la desire (demand?) clarity and concision.

Non-Davos is fed up. Lose the pablum. Stop dithering. Discuss.