Economists, Like Royal Children, Are Not Punished

Viewed From A Distance, Or Through The Eye Of The All-knowing Ceo Of The Universe, The Crash Of 2008 Followed The Usual Pattern. A Long-lived Boom Driven By Cheap Credit, Going Back As Far As 1982 (though Subject To Interruptions In The Mid-1980s And 1990s, And In 2001), Came To Grief Because Of A Rise In The Cost Of Borrowing Money.

We Generally Write Best Of What We Ourselves Have Seen.

A Century Ago, Petroleum - What We Call Oil - Was Just An Obscure Commodity; Today It Is Almost As Vital To Human Existence As Water.

Soaring Prices For Crude Oil, Falling Production Surpluses, Wild Speculation In Commodities, A Rush Into The Precious Metals, Turmoil In The Middle East, Assertive Oil Producers: It Is 1973-74 All Over Again, And At Dictation Speed.

By Pouring Money And Goods Into Devastated Regions, Foreign Aid Workers Sometimes Compound The Disruption And Debauch The Survivors.