Shield a business from its “natural” ups and downs, provide it with cheap and ready credit, and you can be pretty sure that, over time, such a business will “learn” to be under-equitized and hence ill-prepared for a downturn from which it cannot be so shielded. Ditto for the private citizen who is “taught” that a world without recessions is a world that needs no rainy day fund nor indeed any cushion between expenses and earnings. In short, the central bankers’ “best intentions” set up the private economy like so many bowling pins.
