Catherine Rampell notes a very interesting bit of Cultural Anthropology in Economix today. That would be a book by Karen Ho on the culture of Wall Street where, it appears, no one has a permanent job or does any particular thing for a very long time. Instead our financial giants move from one specialty to another. Energy prices are up so you become a oil and gas trader. Next year you will read a few books on health care and become an expert adviser to Senator Wyden and so on.

In a situation like this the essence of survival is to make only minimal investment in your actual knowledge and instead use generalized skills in sharp dealing to make a quick buck before you move on. If a mark gets wise to you there are plenty of other suckers out there.

And, it turns out that our betters have had a great role in shaping the post Post War economy. Their lives were wonderful so they figured that they would spread the joy. We would all be better off if the market forced us to be more entrepreneurial through job cuts and repeated layoffs. Besides, with a little economics you can understand anything.