If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” This is known as Stein’s Law, after the late Herbert Stein, former chairman of Richard Nixon’s Council of Economic Advisers. Stein published this in June 1989, in reference to US trade and budget deficits.
They have still not stopped! But, as a German adage of similar import says, “trees don’t grow to the sky”. At some point, the tree’s weight becomes unsupportable.
Martin WolfColumnistMartin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the Commander of the British Empire in 2000 “for services to financial journalism”.
