What a difference a few months make

Back in May I attended a conference about American foreign policy from 2009 onwards.  Here’s a link to what I said,* but basically what I said is that global markets for capital, energy, food, and carbon emissions were badly dysfunctional.  I remember being struck by the fact that I was the most optimistic of the panelists, and I was pretty damn gloomy.  I bring this up because this Tyler Cowen quote perfectly captures how I’m feeling as of late: 

[A]t the end of the day it is hard to escape the conclusion that markets simply have performed horribly in a number of important regards.

More on what this portends in a bit.  Given that Tyler’s one of the more optimistic economists I’ve met, however, this is a damning quote. * As is typical at these kinds of conferences, the economics-themed panel is always scheduled last.  This can be pretty annoying, since, typically,  it’s only after the political economy panel that the rest of the attendees realized that they aren’t going to be able to implement many of their more grandiose grand strategies.