Crises

When a crisis arises -- for example, the current level of fuel prices, though an economist would likely say that this is just the working of the free market, no reason to be alarmed -- we demand answers, and right the hell now, too. We'd like to think that there have been people thinking about this very thing, or close enough as makes no difference, for quite some time now, and while they don't have the answer, or an answer that we find palatable, they do have a grasp of the situation, and can spring into action, dumping their knowledge into little isolinear memory sticks that can be slotted into the back of politician's heads so that they can base their actions on hard fact and informed speculation. Which tends not to be the case, but thats a different problem.

What I was wondering was, a la The Donald (no, the other one), how do you know when you don't know something that you really ought to be thinking about? Who decides this is something that bright people ought to be thinking about....and we need some more of those isolinear sticks, as the old ones get gummy pretty quickly, and makes sure that someone's thinking about it?

Hah. I know the answer to that one.