Launch

We should start with where we are, and then work backwards. The economy is spinning down. A recession is like a pothole, a deep deep pothole. You hit it with your car, hard, it rattles you, causes you to drive more cautiously for a moment, maybe slow down a little. You recall, reconsider, re-evaluate, and proceed with caution; as though you expect there to be more potholes. However, you are relieved to discover that it was an unusual event, an unexpected and unconsidered phenomenon, but nothing persistent, nothing threatening. Your expectations are ultimately exceeded, found to have been too cautious, too pessimistic.
In the context of the economy, you put money, effort, time, blood sweat and tears forward in one period, and expect a particular payoff in the next. This time, we had a set of expectations, we thought we all understood what it meant to have a liquidity crisis. This ancient concept of broad based market failure in the lending industry seemed distant, alien, but discrete and understandable. We accepted that there would be a disruption, we hunkered down, the economy shed some load, and we entered into a recession. Then everything changed. We took our cautious step back, and still managed to be further disappointed. Acting rationally, as all rational actors would, we took the only action that we could: we lowered our expectations. Unfortunately, we were again frustrated by failure.
Can you see the emergent pattern? the overarching behavior? Our collective activity magnifies into a common spiritual vibe. We look to not only our own performance, but that of our neighbors, the members of our community. We don't live in a vacuum, we draw from our surroundings in the hope that what we can take in will allow us to make better decisions. When those around us fail we notice and take warning. Uncertainty is the gasoline on which this fire is fed.
And now, as we all strain our eyes to see the light at the end of the tunnel, we can perceive only a misty gray darkness. Voices whisper at us from the shadows, assuring us that help is coming, that everything is really alright, insisting that our sense that serves us so well in the best of times is simply failing us now. They tell us that the end is there, even if we cannot see it. Those who would naturally feel in the darkness for a way out of this mess are quietly told to hold back, less we leave anyone behind. There is suffering near the back we hear, amid the huddled masses. Those who pull forward hardest will simply be given the greatest load, the heaviest burden.
We cannot work our way out of this mess waiting in the darkness. Those who crave the light must try, now more than ever, to find it. It is their purpose to lead the rest of us out.
Mind you, this is all very abstract. But I will finish an abstract discussion off with an even more abstract point. If you were lost in a maze with a group of people, what would you rather have? Food for those who don't have enough to last the winter, or a hungry man who craves freedom more than life itself, and is willing to lead the masses out.