New Virus Threatens The US & Europe

The US & the EU have been struggling awkwardly to resolve the world’s economic woes for three years now and what is most appalling is the epidemic of stupidity that has claimed thousands of victims among world leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.
A New Health Threat: The VSL-2 Epidemic
Only just recently scientists have been able to identify a freak strain of a virus that has been linked to the economic crisis that began at the end of 2008 and continues until today. The virus (named VSL for “Very Stupid Leadership) has been known for years in its milder form: VSL 1, which is as usual as the common cold and affects many business leaders. VSL-1 is easy to diagnose and to treat. The usual symptoms are narrow-mindedness and short-term thinking, often accompanied by selective amnesia (forgetting past mistakes or commitments made just a few days ago).
Treatment of VSL-1 affected patients is pretty straightforward, consisting basically of workshops and coaching. However, when treatment is interrupted after only a few applications, the symptoms usually return and blame is cast upon the treatment. In reality, the cure can only be obtained if one persists with the treatment systematically for at least a year. In some cases, up to three years of regular treatment are necessary before the patient can be safely declared to be free of the virus.
The form identified now is a different strain (dubbed VSL-2) and has some peculiar characteristics which make it far more dangerous than the previously known form:
1. The main symptom is a severe decrease in intelligence as in the ability to solve common problems. This can easily be verified by using IQ tests, which will show a negative impact of 30 points or more when compared to scores obtained before the infection. The main difficulty is convincing the subjects to take the test once they have been infected (see next item).
2. It is far more difficult to recognize and isolate in a laboratory, because it is accompanied by strong denial and feelings of righteousness
3. It affects especially leaders in senior political positions, policy makers and regulators. Apparently people under 30 are immune to it, and so are investment bankers. The reason behind the immunity of investment bankers is still a contentious issue among researchers: some say that it is a function of the nature of their activity, others say that it is a function of their age (most are under 30) or of their mental age (certainly most have a mental age well below 30). Still other specialists have even claimed that investment bankers are not really immune, they just look smart when compared to regulators who have been deeply affected by VSL-2.
4. The short-term thinking is not as severe, eluding first efforts at diagnosing it. VSL-1 patients think in terms of quarters, while those affected by VSL-2 have a management horizon of 12 months. The pathology is determined by the fact that the 12-month outlook is applied even to issues that require thinking in five-year terms (or more), such as economic recovery and managing government debt.
5. VSL-2 brings about selective blindness to economic data, specially unemployment data, and damages the perception of social unrest.
It’s The Stupidity, Stupid
The main problem world leaders face right now is not political, it is the economy. However, the real problem beneath that, the root cause of the prolonged economic crisis, is the stupidity caused by VSL-2. Apparently the virus also causes leaders to avoid taking measures that are consistent and “go all the way” in a certain direction. Rather, they end up implementing “half-baked” solutions or “watered-down” compromises which are insufficient to address the issues as needed.
In the US, leaders struggled to decide for economic stimulus packages and “quantitative easing”. Basically, they opted for injecting billions of dollars into the economy, when the need was for much more: trillions of dollars were needed in order to capitalize the banks, create jobs and allow companies to hoard cash (and be less dependent on the banking system). The chosen solution proved to be insufficient, but since it increased the national deficit (DUUHH!) politicians quickly shifted their attention to decreasing that deficit, rather than increasing to the point where it would actually have an impact in job creation. The situation now is that banks and companies have excess cash, but not enough to invest in production and expansion (creating jobs).
In the UK, conservatives blamed the crisis on the Labour Party (a smart move, before the virus affected them), won the election by a narrow margin and proceeded to implement a programme of economic reform. That’s when VSL-2 set in, and the programme went off-track. Rather than cutting expenses intelligently, leaders made the cuts in all the wrong places, totally overcome by VSL-2 (poor bastards!).
These symptoms are quite similar to what I have encountered in private companies, where leaders affected by the common VSL-1 have made stupid investment decisions (spending on the wrong things) and later have reverted to cutting expenses indiscriminately, across the board (which results in cutting expenses in the wrong items). In both cases, rather than deciding to invest smartly or to manage expenses with intelligence, affected leaders choose the easy (and stupid) option of doing it across the board. Eventually they are replaced by healthier substitutes, when it’s not to late to save the company.
Stupidity on one side of the Atlantic (US: spending badly, on the wrong things, and not enough, then reverting to expense-cutting across the board). Stupidity on the other side of the Atlantic (UK: refusing to invest in job creation and cutting expenses across the board). The VSL-2 epidemic has become a pandemic.
Continental Europe has also become affected in dealing with the Greek-Irish-Portuguese-Spanish-Italian-French crisis. Leaders have failed to inject enough money in the economy, have failed to commit enough money to bail out Greece and the other countries involved. Rather than issuing Euro-bonds which would solve the problem in the long term, they are still debating as if the continent was still made of sovereign countries. The future lies in strengthening the European Union as such, but leaders affected by VSL-2 fail to see that.
Meanwhile, the investment bankers, who are immune to the virus, are playing the international financial system and having a ball! They pick targets each week:
IB1 - “Ok, let’s do Italy next week, then Spain again…”
IB2 – “Not Spain again! There’s more potential in doing a different country. How about the US?”
IB1 – “Not yet. Wait until we’re closer to the elections, then we can really make a killing! Let’s do France instead.”
Up until now, China seems to have avoided contagion. Some say that their cultural DNA is immune to narrow-mindedness and short-term thinking, but there have been some signs of contamination. Can they remain immune or is it a matter of time? No one knows for sure.
The Cure
In the 80’s, the band “The Cure” had a number of hits, one of which was the song “A Forest”. Therein lies the remedy against VSL-2.
Leaders need to look at the forest, rather than the individual trees, to fight against narrow-mindedness. In Europe they need to look at Europe as a whole (including the UK!) and not at the outdated and obsolete concept of sovereign countries. In the US, they need to look beyond partisan divisions and local states interests, focusing on the American economy which stretches beyond national boundaries and spans the whole planet.
Everywhere, leaders need to think long term, as if they were planting a forest which will take years, maybe decades to develop. Someone once remarked to a man planting a tree: “Are you planting a tree? That’s going to take years to grow and provide a return on your investment, in terms of shade, shelter or fruit!” To which the man replied: “Then I’d better do it now, rather than wait any longer!”
Until someone discovers a pill that removes stupidity caused by VSL-2, let’s launch a campaign inspired by another “The Cure” song, called “Close To You”. Let’s each of us get close to a leader we know and let’s try to help him or her fight against narrow-mindedness and short-term thinking. Let’s do what we can to influence these leaders in a positive way, looking at the bigger picture. By helping them we will be helping society as a whole, both in the short term and in the long term.