The Flipped Economy, Pt 1.
A few days ago, on the phone with a friend, I found a sentence coming out of my mouth that I wasn't sure I agreed with. I don't remember the exact words I used; it was something like "The chief shortage in today's economy is access to enterprise buyers," but here's what I meant: We have enough stuff. We have stuff coming out of our ears! But this cheers no one; what we are actually concerned about is cash flows . A basic economics class talks about capital investment in this way: a company, to become more efficient, invests in equipment, or factories, or technology, and thus creates more goods, or the same goods at a cheaper price, etc. This is what "economic progress" supposedly looks like. Except..."stuff" isn't what people actually buy. Most people's expenses go into rent, food, education, and health care. To be sure, "stuff" is an input to the prices of those things, but...is it? Really? The real expen...