CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS — The American economy is having what doctors call an acute episode.
Employment won't throb. The circulation of capital remains weak. Industry is breathing, but barely. And if we can agree on anything one year into this mess, it is that there is little we can do when the patient arrives already this bad.
That is why the talk now is so often of prevention. Prevent the next crisis through health insurance and a green-energy sector, the American president says. Prevent it by cutting spending and nurturing personal responsibility, American conservatives retort.
But the truth is that politicians, and not just in the United States, are rarely willing to invest in a problem that hasn't occurred. Consensus and action are easier to come by after a 9/11 or a Lehman Brothers than before. Problems in the embryonic, soluble phase don't interest us; and those that do interest us are often too big to solve.
Which is where acupuncture comes in.
