December 05, 2007

Tons of knowledge for a gram of wisdom!

Sir we are experiencing how prime credit rating agencies pointed us toward clearly subprime directions; not knowing where the risks and the losses of the current financial turmoil are; and sometimes finding out that your highly sophisticated investment banker, whom you pay well, cannot tell you how much your investment is worth, not even on a give and take 20 percent basis.

Since we also so frequently hear references to the concept that our economy has become more knowledge-based, should we not, if only out of modesty, start to downplay that illusion?

Having been an Executive Director of the World Bank a couple of years ago I was of course bombarded with the concept of the Knowledge Bank, then and now my reaction was the same… “Forget your tons of knowledge and please give me a gram of wisdom!”