“Mother of inflated hope/Mistress of despair”

The Chronicle of Higher Education interviewed economist Stephen Ziliak.
In haiku.

Q. How does writing verse
Help your students understand
A math-based science?
A: Thought transportation —
Newton’s laws might still abide,
Listen: Einstein’s train.
Q: A labor union
Protects workers from abuse —
But what does it cost?
A: Green Knights of Labor,
free Haymarket Anarchists,
cost less than Madoff.
Q: Debt plus recession —
Which is the better move:
saving or spending?
A: Treasury shoppers
choose plain broth over duck soup,
Nudge this paradox.
Q: Regarding Wall Street,
Do virtues of laissez-faire
Apply as elsewhere?
A: Traders are human,
swapping vices for virtues
and vice versa.
Q: Mom and Dad, I’m home!
The job market is nasty —
Where is my bedroom?
A: Invisible hand:
Mother of inflated hope,
Mistress of despair!
Q: Haiku might seem dumb
to bean counters and stuffed shirts —
Students disagree?
A: In this other world
wild orchids freely blossom —
haiku GDP.

Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 21st, 2009 at 2:06 pm

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