28 Mar Darwinism Economics

Darwinism Economics

By Ian Robinson

There are a handful of books that changed the world.

Some of which include Isaac Newton’s “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica” written in 1687 and set the foundation for modern mathematics.  Preceding Isaac was Nicolaus Copernicus’ “On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres” written in 1543 which radically changed the way we observed our once strongly held egotistical centric position within our solar system to being a mere passenger in a much grander theatrical universe.  On an antiquities basis you have the King James Bible that was translated in 1611 for the global anglophones to spread their devoted scripture. In more modern times you have Albert Einstein’s “Relativity: The Special and General Theory” written in 1916 which accelerated mankind’s knowledge into the world of complex modern physics.

But there is one book that has been globally accepted as divisive to the holy sacrament and modern science as it was transformational to the understanding of ourselves as a human race – “On Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin that was first printed in 1859.  It breaks down the mythical evolution of Genus by summation of survival as an equation of incremental positive adaptation to change.

It can be easily correlated that Darwinism is currently playing out in our world of economics and our overarching financial wellbeing (or destruction of).  Our financial climate is facing a scenario of adjustment much faster than economic evolution can naturally adapt to due to the multiple consequences of global inflation.

The presence of inflation, in its most gruesome form, washes out the weak.  Bank’s with exposed balance sheets and liquidity constraints are throwing out the life rafts.  Central banks will squeeze liquidity to contain inflation and will percolate credit on a purely survival basis only.  Credit, due to tightening supply, will become more expensive and restricted to those most worthy.  Most dramatic of all will be the “zombie” companies that maintained an economic pulse fuelled on cheap accessible credit will choke and sink to the abyss and add further tombstones to the corporate graveyard.

For the rest of us mere business mortals, we must be clinically strategic, decisive in action and emphasise control over areas that can be controlled, and not those that can’t, in order to first survive – then thrive in this new environment.

It will be a case of adaptability for business owners operating in new world of economic stresses.  The book by Laurence Gonzales “Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why” depicts survival as a means of moving through the four stages of cognitive thinking as quickly as you can – denial, anger, lassitude, and action.   It is the fourth stage where productive and positive outcomes are generated.  Despair and destruction are nurtured in the first three.

We need to blink to break the 1000-yard stare, roll up the sleeves and start making a difference.  Every day counts.  Those that break through will ultimately champion their industry.