These and many other questions of a similar nature are being asked by people around the world. The present crisis did not arise in a vacuum. It may have caught nearly everyone by surprise, but it was years in the making. Infact the connections to our current predicament go right back to our ancient past. We have to remember that the present is a result of decisions made in the past. A different set of decisions would have resulted in a different present. While most people are unaware of it, the future is being determined right now as I write this. The future will be determined by the decisions of the present. In some cases (for example, the environmental consequences of our actions) the course of the future has to a large extent already been determined by our decisions in the past. It is a cliche to say that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Yet this is what has been happening in every boom and bust cycle for over 200 years. Consistently, people have ignored lessons from the past and continued along the same destructive behaviour pattern. Unfortuneately as communications technology has developed, the consequences of each successive boom and bust have become more severe. So if we wish to avoid repeats in the future, we have to examine the past. Only by understanding the past can we understand the present and only by understanding the present can we hope to change our future course.
In the next few posts, I will be examing the history of capitalism to better understand the present. Of necessity, this will also entail examing economic theories for these provide the intellectual underpinnings to the whole capitalist structure.
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