The three little pigs and the big bad wolf (a fable)

Published in Brainstorm Northwest, November 2008

Once upon a time there was a happy community. In the community there lived a Wizard. Some called him the Maestro, others called him an Oracle. In any event, he was called on from time to time to make Big decisions. These decisions involved the land in which he and the little people lived. The Big decisions usually involved money but sometimes they involved how the money was priced, who got the money, and how those who received the money used it. Because these decisions were so Big, sooner or later they affected everyone in the land — not always for the better.

As it happened, the land fell on hard times because decisions made by the Wizard were wrong. Businesses were failing, and people were losing their jobs, savings and retirement accounts. The prices of companies were falling along with the price of just about everything else, except food and energy. (At an earlier time, the Wizard had said the food and energy didn’t count, so don’t pay attention to them.) […]