When the Economy
Goes Off the Rails

It’s hard to visualize all the economic connections that are tangled up in the current crisis. It’s easier to understand practical examples, like the long trains of freightcars that link farmers with city-dwellers.

A Filknet discussion reminded Kay Shapero about Leslie Fish’s “The Grain Train“.

I forget who said it, but it’s true that when you try to pick up just one thing you invariably find it’s hitched to the rest of the universe.

Leslie Fish explained, “I wrote that song in Chicago, which sits at a huge rail-junction, and at the southern edge of one of the Great Lakes, AND at the edge of the Wheatlands. If the trains stopped rolling, even Chicago would be in serious trouble.”

[Thanks to David Klaus for the link.]