The Market as God

All this constant chatter about the stock market reminded me about a wonderful article I had read a few years ago in the Atlantic. So, a quick search and it is amazing how fast we can now pull up something from the past.

In that 1999 article by Harvey Cox, who was (is?) a Professor of Divinity at Harvard, easily juggles with philosophical constructs, theological ideas, and compares them with how the Market has taken over as the new religion. I remembered feeling lost about some of the philosophical ideas he was talking about .... A neat piece that Cox concludes with:

No religion, new or old, is subject to empirical proof, so what we have is a contest between faiths. Much is at stake. The Market, for example, strongly prefers individualism and mobility. Since it needs to shift people to wherever production requires them, it becomes wrathful when people cling to local traditions. These belong to the older dispensations and -- like the high places of the Baalim -- should be plowed under. But maybe not. Like previous religions, the new one has ingenious ways of incorporating pre-existing ones. Hindu temples, Buddhist festivals, and Catholic saints' shrines can look forward to new incarnations. Along with native costumes and spicy food, they will be allowed to provide local color and authenticity in what could otherwise turn out to be an extremely bland Beulah Land.

There is, however, one contradiction between the religion of The Market and the traditional religions that seems to be insurmountable. All of the traditional religions teach that human beings are finite creatures and that there are limits to any earthly enterprise. A Japanese Zen master once said to his disciples as he was dying, "I have learned only one thing in life: how much is enough." He would find no niche in the chapel of The Market, for whom the First Commandment is "There is never enough." Like the proverbial shark that stops moving, The Market that stops expanding dies. That could happen. If it does, then Nietzsche will have been right after all. He will just have had the wrong God in mind.

Bonus if you read until here: it was in 1999 that the Atlantic also featured an article that argued that stocks were undervalued and that we would soon race towards a Dow Jones value of 36,000. Ha ha ha. I guess the Market God failed us, or got very very angry :-)
Their thesis was this:

Stocks are now, we believe, in the midst of a one-time-only rise to much higher ground -- to the neighborhood of 36,000 for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. After they complete this historic ascent, owning them will still be profitable but the returns will decline. You won't be able to make as much money from them each year. We believe that in the meantime, however, astounding profits will be made.