Further commentary on the interconnected themes of income disparity, agricultural inflation, and selective de-globalization, this time by Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen. Perhaps most compelling is the charge that a rising tide doesn’t lift all ships, and those who have benefited least from a “flattening” of our economic superstructure are often the most exposed to rising prices and shifting patterns of supply and demand. Also of note is the graphic artist chosen to visualize our scramble for scarce natural resources, yet another gifted Walrus alum…

As financial institutions continue to navel gaze in the aftermath of the credit crisis, confidence in their ability to self-regulate continues to decline. With little trust in their assets, their markets, or even their peers, these global banking titans have sworn off their independence and, like disenchanted teens, are returning home to be cared for by risk-averse, populist policy-makers and their never-ending pool of taxpayers’ dough. The danger here is that both sides are still reacting to deeds already done, and nobody has yet proposed a solution to avoid similar financial chaos going forward. With threats to global income in the order of nearly a trillion dollars, whoever ultimately grabs this hot potato better have pretty thick skin…

As markets continue to reel from the too-little-too-late conservative ethos that is snaking its way through the world’s major financial institutions, the wisdom of blind faith in some “invisible hand” is finally being put to the test. At stake are trillions of dollars of borrowed money floating anonymously within complex and unregulated markets, coupled with with an imploding US dollar, soaring energy demand in high-growth emerging economies, troublesome “business as usual” predictions for worldwide carbon emissions, and gross negligence in coordinating the world’s basic agricultural equilibrium. If free markets and “the wisdom of crowds” are truly the answer to the complex challenges of global resource coordination, recent evidence isn’t the least bit convincing…