Economic Flattening

I have had a theory that I have more or less held privately until now about how the future of the economy will look. That theory is that everything will adjust less and less until no more adjustments are necessary. Let me explain. We all hear about inflation, rising and falling prices, and wage increases or decreases. These I believe are largely caused by imbalances in the overall system, supply and demand, and economic manipulation by the government. I believe that Adam Smith's invisible hand of the market will eventually stop moving. Of course, with as much economic turmoil that is going on now, this is a hard pill to swallow. However, we do see it in the unifying of currencies such as the E.U. and in the stagnant growth of economies around the world. All in all, world markets are starting to become much larger consumers of goods. Since we have a huge export to import deficit is it any wonder that the dollar's value has fallen and commodity prices are up? Everything swings toward equilibrium. And I do mean everything. The excesses in consumption that the U.S. is used to will be no more...

What made me bring this up now? An article in business week. Lean-and-Mean Is Paying Off for the Economy It is mostly an article about increased efficiency in corporations, but it is worth thinking about further. If you follow the link of the one and only current comment by Michael Donnelly you get a different side of the story. I have further thoughts, but it is time to get to my Stats class. Maybe I will have more on the economy later...