Zombie Economics

ZOMBIE ECONOMICS
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1 What is the purpose of the article?
The purpose of the article is to provide a current overview of the country's economy. It traces the chronological order of events that have rocked the nation and, by extension, the nation's economy over the past few years. It highlights the September 11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent upheavals characterized by wars and disease outbreaks; and how they have affected the American economy. It also highlights the issue of immigration and how immigrants have created a particular fear amongst American nationals, who feel that these new entrants into their country are taking up the opportunities meant for them. They are powerless to do anything about it (McCormick, 2012). Eventually, the article notes how Americans have gradually grown into zombies due to working in such economic situations. The article tries to shed light on the aspects of economic policy formulation and how it is a crucial process in the formation of a fluid system.
2 How is the ‘zombie metaphor’ used to relate to economics?
To understand its application in economics, it is worthwhile to understand it from a normal perspective of how zombies have been the craze in the entertainment industry over the past few years, with armies of people rising from the dead walking around with no free will but still quite hungry. From an economic perspective, the zombie metaphor is used to illustrate how the people in a given economy have been tuned to follow what the economy dictates without having any control over it (Seybold, 2015). The American populace is still hungry for the new opportunities that the nation provides, but still has no free will to manipulate the economy to satisfy them.
On the other hand, the zombie metaphor helps at illustrating the focus and embracement of economic policies or principles that have clearly been disapproved. Ideas are usually an important element in the formulation and implementation of a successful economic system. It is through ideas that good or sound policies are formulated, and bad ones dealt away with. Policymakers seem to be engaged in working with old policies that have a history of failure, while ignoring new ones that seem to show some hope of effectiveness. Simply put, these old ideas that are repeatedly being recycled are behaving like the zombies; refusing to die and then going ahead to cause havoc in the larger society...