Changing the Landscape

“Great storms and floods have a way of altering landscapes. Once the waters recede, some of the changes are obvious: uprooted trees, damaged property, wrecked roads. Later come further changes, as people seek to avoid a repeat, erecting new flood walls or rebuilding elsewhere.”

I was struck by this opening paragraph to an article in the March 31 issue of The Economist. The article, “Hope at Last,” gives a perspective on how the American economy has been changed by the recession and how it needs to continue to change in order to achieve balance. In its entirety, the article is interesting and hopeful, but it is the opening analogy that really intrigues me.

However, we are entering a new phase of response. Legislators are instituting regulation and companies are reconfiguring their operations. They do this not to limit damage, but to lessen the possibility of another recession like that of 2008 and 2009. The result is more change