American politics
The past as prologue
Feb 26th 2009, 16:00 by Lexington
I HAVE to confess that Engineering & Science, a magazine published by Cal Tech, is not part of my regular reading. But the Winter 2008 issue contains an eye-opening essay by Philip Hoffman and Jean-Lurent Rosenthal setting the current economic crisis in a broad historical setting. The moral, at the very least: money people should spend less time studying financial formulae and a lot more studying economic history.
(Hat tip to Growthology.org)
In this blog, our Lexington columnist enters America’s political fray and shares the many opinions that don't make it into his column each week. The column and blog are named after Lexington, Massachusetts, where the first shots were fired in the American war of independence.
Advertisement
- Analects | China
- Americas view | The Americas
- Babbage | Science and technology
- Bagehot's notebook | British politics
- Banyan | Asia
- Baobab | Africa
- Blighty | Britain
- Buttonwood's notebook | Financial markets
- Charlemagne's notebook | European politics
- Clausewitz | Defence, security and diplomacy
- Democracy in America | American politics
- Eastern approaches | Ex-communist Europe
- Elysée | France’s presidential election
- Free exchange | Economics
- Game theory | Sports
- Graphic detail | Charts, maps and infographics
- Gulliver | Business travel
- Johnson | Language
- Leviathan | Public policy
- Lexington's notebook | American politics
- Newsbook | News analysis
- Prospero | Books, arts and culture
- Schumpeter | Business and management
Most commented
- The euro crisis: The Greek run
- Foreigners in China: Barbarians at the gate, again
- Brazil’s economy: A bull diminished
- Russia and NATO: Rethink the reset
- Gay marriage: North Carolina begs the question too
- Nationalism online: Backfired
- Turkey’s cultural ambitions: Of marbles and men
- Greece and the euro: Exodus, chapter 1
- Politics and private equity: Bringing the Bain
- India-China relations and the media: Blame the messenger
Over the past five days
Most recommended
- The euro crisis: The Greek run
- Greek politics: Slouching towards the drachma
- Foreigners in China: Barbarians at the gate, again
- Brazil’s economy: A bull diminished
- The euro crisis: Going, going, gone?
- Jacob Zuma: Portrait of a president
- Rival versions of capitalism: The endangered public company
- Bo Xilai v Chen Guangcheng: Who is the mightier?
- Facebook goes public: Not top of the pops
- France and Germany: The Frangela show
Over the past seven days
Advertisement
Readers' comments
The Economist welcomes your views. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers. Review our comments policy.
Sort:
your links aren't working
How about Paul Kennedy's Rise and Fall of the Great Powers? I find it very illuminating to understand these new days.
FACT. History is a key for trading and investing, not least because it would include references to scandals, thefts, defaults (both corporate and govt), swindles, manias that have plagued all asset classes over the past 1000yrs. Humans have not changed that much, either on an individual or aggregated basis. The placement of that essay is appropriate, given that many with undergrad degrees in engineering do end up in economic/trading/finance careers.
here's the link - http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXXI4/FinancialCrisis.pdf
thanks, jack