"Maybe you would like to explain why no country has ever managed to
avoid economic cycles ... " 
Gee Rod, you have a really creative streak, haven't you?  I'll bet I konw
what you would have told Orville and Wilbur ... or William Wilburforce. 
"Utterly confusing what's desirable [at least there's an admission!]
with what's possible." 
Your conclusion, ergo, that even though recession are patently man-made, it
is not possible to stop them.  Arrant nonsense!  Now, listen up!  It really
is simple:  
Economic recession and depression is characterised by involuntary
unemployment.  If people do want to work and can't, what stops them?  Can't
they just go and do something?  No.  Most of them can't.  They need access
to resources such as a shop, a factory, an office or equipment. 
As early as the 1890s depression Banjo Patterson noted that the
"locking up" of Australia was no complete - due to those who
monopolised access to resources. 
Earlier, Thomas Carlyle agreed.  He said that economics would forever
remain "the dismal science" unless we taxed those who held the
resources of the world to the exclusion of others.  He said we needed
revenue from a levy upon land, instead of upon the incomes and products of
those who tried to work for a living. 
But you see, Rod, economists are always employed by people or institutions
who would have a lot to lose in a truly free (not monopoly) enterprise
system. 
Adam Smith exemplifies this.  He greatly admired the French physiocrats,
but backslid on theirs this.  He greatly admired the French physiocrats,
but backslid on their "impote unique" because it would have
affronted those who ran his uni back at home.  A couple of years ago
Professor Mason Gaffney, a world resource rent expert, was threatened with
expulsion if he continued to advocate that resource rents should
progressively be used to replace taxes on productivity.  He was saved by
his students.  So much for academic freedom - and why certain things are
NOT ALLOWED to be tried! 
I could supply quotes from 100 famous people - Thomas Paine, Jefferson,
Lincoln, Einstein, Tolstoy, who all said that we needed revenue from
resources instead of taxes upon production.  But we wombats go along saying
that if it worked, it would have been tried.  We remain dupes and victims
of recessions and a taxation system that takes from the poor and middle
class and distributes liberally to the super rich.  And you say, Rod, that
the next depression will be relatively mild?  Want a bet?

--- Maximus/2 2.01wb