Monday, June 15, 2009

Niall Ferguson: "Corrupt, Amoral Politicians, An Economy Sinking in Terrifying Debt. And a People Enraged. Britain Has Been Here Before... "

[Excerpt] ...

In his Rural Rides, which he began writing in 1822 and published in 1830, the radical journalist William Cobbett portrayed a country groaning under the twin burdens of debt and sleaze.

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. ...


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