Akkam’s Razor

I’ve been utterly preoccupied with this meme, which started with some references I read somewhere on on Billmon or on BOPNEWS, and further researched on this document (PDF/HTML) titled the Fourth Republic by Stirling Newberry of BOPNEWS:

Each Republic, then, has three important pillars - a monetary basis, a system of power arrangements to negotiate the working of that monetary basis in social and economic power, and a lens which ties the government to the fiscal discipline needed for maintaining the relationship between the two. When the monetary basis becomes unworkable, there is a economic crisis which, while perhaps no larger than others, is intractable to the old order, as political arrangements are unable to cope with the tension between what must be done and what can be done. The crisis is only resolved after there is over-reaching attempt which destroys the previous currency basis. Only when some means to take on the debt left behind by the older order, and the cost of repairing it, is assigned, does the process truly end, an a new Republic is born, and grows to maturity.

I keep going back to it, and wondering (metaphorically), "Is the sun on the chair rising or setting?"

What’s the failure that doesn’t work in our current environment that spurs drastic action? Will it be housing values? Consumer Debt? The (current) two party system? The end of the Supply Side economy? The trade imbalance? Budget defecits? Out-of-control healthcare expenses? Stagnant wages? Rising energy costs and their attendant effect on inflation? The "real" cost of inflation (once housing expenses are, ahem, corrected)?

And why 72-years? For some reason, I’m stuck on the "Rule of 72", which states if you divide any interest rate into 72, your result will be the number of years it will take money to double in value from compound interest. I recall seeing that it has something to do with the average lifespan, political cycles, astrology, stockmarket cycles… what is it?

In any case, there are two paths that we find ourselves pondering - the path of "On Your OWNership that the Republicans are spending, and a yet-to-be-determined path, not yet discovered yet alone explored. As best I can tell, the Democratic Party has neither the will nor the ability to innovate and foster change, rather, they are also the problem, merely the opposite side of the same coin. We voted for Kerry because we didn’t want Bush - same as they did the reverse…and yet we deride them.