America s Overrated Decline

One of the strands of thinking I was involved in was that sameness is so incredibly overrated.

Different levels of health care are insufficiently connected and coordinated and health care protection is overrated, at the expense of primary protection.

But when those preferences drive us too hard and too fast because we have overrated the difference between these futures, we are at risk.

Now, I didn't really understand that until I met this guy who was then an 80 year old, slightly shambolic man who lived on tomato soup and thought ironing was very overrated.

I write this in the 88th year of my life, but not because I have learned from experience. On the contrary, experience is overrated, often constraining the courage needed to face tomorrow and build an unprecedented new world.

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali s ouster in Tunisia signalled the collapse of the Arab stability model, praised by many Western leaders, consisting of authoritarianism and overrated economic performance. The surge of anger and revolt in Egypt, whatever its final outcome, marks the beginning of the end for authoritarian nationalist Arab regimes.

Andy Haldane, one of the lieutenants Carney inherited at the BoE, has questioned the financial sector s economic contribution, pointing to its ability to both invigorate and incapacitate large parts of the non financial economy. He argues (in a speech revealingly entitled The Contribution of the Financial Sector Miracle or Mirage? ) that the financial sector s reported contribution to GDP has been significantly overrated.