Red Queen vs Court Jester Redux

I wrote a piece on the Red Queen versus Court Jester hypothesis of evolution and applied it to the handling of the economy by the current Administration some two and a half years ago. The Red Queen hypothesis is gradualism, the ever changing nature of genetic transfer via mating that allows for adaptation in a continual basis. The Court Jester model is one which says we adapt as a result of some catastrophic event, such as a meteor from outer space.

I am reminded of this again as we see the debt limit issue arising. The current Administration has been trying to adapt by means f incremental changes but the meteor of the debt limit is fast approaching. If it hits then the  Court Jester model may take over and the result may be significant.

We have many examples of this effect. WW II was a Court Jester effect, one where we saw a globally explosive event which rearranged the way we live. Since then we have been in a Red Queen mode slowly adapting in an incremental manner. The collapse of our banking system and the collapse of our own financial world in terms of the exploding debt may set the Court Jester model to work again.

In a sense this is evolution in a political sense. It will impact us poor humans in a dramatic manner but it appears to be a process of nature.