The best that can be said for 2009 is that it could have been worse, that we pulled back from the precipice on which we seemed to be perched in late 2008, and that 2010 will almost surely be better for most countries around the world. The world has also learned some valuable lessons, though at great cost to both current and future prosperity — costs that were unnecessarily high given that we should already have learned them.

The first lesson is that markets are not self-correcting. Indeed, without adequate regulation, they are prone to excess. In 2009, we again see why Adam Smith's invisible hand often appears invisible: it is not there. The bankers' pursuit of self-interest (greed) did not lead to the well-being of society; it did not even serve their shareholders and bondholders well. It certainly did not serve homeowners who are losing their homes, workers who have lost their jobs, retirees who have seen their retirement funds vanish, or taxpayers who paid hundreds of billions to bail out the banks.

MIAMI — Rosario and Igor Montoya used to buy, buy, buy for themselves and their two children without a second thought. Expensive sneakers, a new laptop, Legos — they all got what they wanted. But with the recession slashing the Montoyas’ workload and income by more than half, their priorities have shifted from products to activities.

After school and on weekends, the family now hops into a pink canoe they bought secondhand. They paddle though Biscayne Bay to nearby islands, naming each, sometimes making boats out of sticks and leaves.

Wednesday December 30, 2009

I REFER to Datuk Halim Man’s article “Energy solution is right here” (The Star, Dec 25).

Achieving “grid parity” will take Malaysia perhaps another 10 to 15 years. This is the estimation if foreign technologies are used as generating input into current development of renewable energy in the Malaysian context.

GENEVA: The Head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr Margaret Chan warned on Tuesday that the A/H1N1 pandemic influenza is not over yet and the world needs to continue monitoring the evolution of the disease in 2010, reported China’s Xinhua news agency.

“It’s too premature, too early for us to say we have come to an end of the pandemic influenza worldwide,” Dr Margaret Chan told a news conference at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.