"Crisis is an integral part of History." Prof. Niall Ferguson, Harvard University
The 1820s were a time of acute financial crisis - of deflation, a crashing stock market and soaring unemployment - and Cobbett expressed better than anyone the bitter national mood.
Unlike the economists of his time, he dismissed the idea that the crisis was the result of a natural business cycle. For Cobbett, it was clearly a consequence of political corruption.
'A national debt,' he wrote, 'and all the taxation and gambling belonging to it, have a natural tendency to draw wealth into great masses - for the gain of a few.' Now, Cobbett lamented, 'the Debt, the blessed Debt' was 'hanging round the neck of this nation like a millstone'. Full Report:
HOW ECONOMISTS CAN MISUNDERSTAND THE CRISIS
Did I not grasp that the key to the crisis was “a vast excess of desired savings over willing investment”? “We have a global savings glut,” explained Mr Krugman, “which is why there is, in fact, no upward pressure on interest rates.” Full Report: Crisis Misunderstood http://bit.ly/19QqQB
The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson
Looking Back to make sense of the Economic Crisis
Mr Ferguson is right. The world needs a book that puts today’s crisis into context. It is too late now to warn investors about expensive houses and financiers about cheap credit. But perhaps the past can help make sense of the wreckage of banks, brokers and hedge funds that litters the markets. Looking back may help suggest what to do next. And when the crisis is over and it is time for the great reckoning, the lessons of history should inform the arguments about what must change. Full Report .Financial History: http://bit.ly/Kx12V
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