It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine...

Sorry about the title, but after listening to Obama's press conference tonight and reading various criticisms of the economic stimulus package, that about sums up my feelings about the economic crisis. To be honest, I completely lack the economic expertize to pontificate on such matters, and am not even interested in linking to those who claim them. But I did run across a couple of interesting posts in the last couple days that focus on an aspect of these issues that does interest me: how our collective reactions to such crises reflect our views on human nature, and how that should impact our decision-making.

First, Charlie Lehardy has a great post on the concept of "moral hazard" and its impact on the current economic situation. Second, Chris Schelin has some good reflections on the subject of "peak oil"--an issue that is currently less visible than the recession, but may in the long run prove more important--particularly the way overly optimistic and pessimistic views of humanity tend to dominate such debates. Both posts offer some helpful observations from a lay-persons' perspective.