Volume 4 · The Ledger and the Loom · Essay 93

Financial Instability Hypothesis

A hypothesis is a guess that has agreed to be tested. Financial Instability Hypothesis is a guess worth the experiment.

Whether the hypothesis is finally true matters less than what it teaches you to notice. Good hypotheses are like good questions — they rearrange the furniture of the mind even when they are wrong.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

Ask the LIC agent at your door and the trader at his terminal — both will tell you the same thing in different clothes: money listens to discipline and laughs at moods.

Money is a good clerk and a terrible master; the arrangement is entirely up to us. If this page made you think of one specific person, do not send it to them. Apply it to yourself first; that is how these things work.