The Consequence of Mary Poppins

I was dragged, last night, to the Broadway production of Mary Poppins. While I can't complain too much -- it was all, or rather mostly, good, nostalgic, fun -- its financial/economic teachings are insipid.

The financial/economic teaching, of the classic movie appear mostly harmless. Bankers extolling the virtues of disciplined long term investing, and responsibly building credit, are mocked, but not central to the plot -- Mr Banks loses his job because he puts it before his family, and regains it when he shifts priorities.

The musical attempts to be sharper in its financial commentary. The central plot element illustrates that smart investing stems from focus on the human aspect and not the strength of the idea, or plan. The character of "the Holy Terror" is introduced (or rather resurrected from the books) to cast rigor and discipline as a traditional Disney villain.

The musical is consistent with the under-informed liberal narrative of the current financial crisis caused, to this view, by a self-involved financial world, wrapped in paper profits and complex derivatives, that lost touch with the real, "human" world around it.

The reality, of course, is that the most direct cause -- government policies promoting the illusion of home ownership by encouraging loose lending -- was a focus on the narrow human aspect at the expense of the rigor of the plan.

More fundamentally, I have previously posted my view:

In the end, the strength of an economy boils down to the aggregate willingness and ability of people to do things valued by other people. And underneath all the awful decisions made by all sorts of economic actors, lies a culture that increasingly devalues the painstaking work that goes with ordinary productivity.

This devaluation is something the writers of musical -- and to a somewhat lesser degree the movie -- strangely sought to encourage.

The good news is that there does appear to be some growing recognition, that parents hurt their children when they withhold discipline.