The law that really governs the Universe

Physicists are working hard to develop a so-called Theory of Everything which will explain how (although not necessarily why) the universe exists and works. Their major problem is that two really useful theories that work very well, in their own areas, are incomplete and incompatible.

(For the curious, the first of these theories is General Relativity, proposed by Albert Einstein, which deals with time, space and gravity from atomic to galactic scales. The other is Quantum Mechanics, developed by Neils Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, P.A.M. Dirac, and Richard Feynman, to name just a few, which is equally useful when dealing with sub-atomic particles and their actions.)

In reality, they are all wasting their time. The single law that governs the Universe has already been discovered and is known as the Law of Unintended Consequences. One formulation reads as below:

"The more actions that a organization (usually a government) takes, the more likely that really unpleasant and unpredictable things will happen to innocent bystanders while the totally undeserving raid taxpayers' wallets with total impunity.

Let us hope that Congress, the Federal Reserve Bank, President Bush, President-elect Obama and the rest of the world's political leaders (and central bankers) keep this in mind as they desperately search for a way to end a nasty - but necessary - recession.