It is always a possibility – especially since there isn’t very good information around stocks.

“The lessons of history have to be taken from a broader perspective than the last century”

And we also have to learn not to dwell to specifically on the lessons of history – each crisis will be different in specific ways.

“Another angle is to view humans as a species pushing resources to their limits. A large proportion of us are only alive due to oil.”

I’m not sure I’d use the term pushing resources to their limits – I would probably say, using resources. If we run out we run out – as long as the price represents the true scarcity (which it may not because of information asymmetries – in which case the solution has to be better information) then we are doing the best we can given our limited resource endowment.

The rise of nations has always been fueled by the common genius of people in societies where they were free to succeed and free to fail. The Decline of nations comes from insulating the citizens as if they were some form of victims needing government help.

The modest recessions seen in America over the past half-century must be looked at in this over-riding manner. The only lesson to be gleaned from the current financial mess is that we have strayed from the traditional concepts that made America great during the past three centuries. And the straying has been brought about by the fanciful theories of the elites who want to administer to us all, the teachers who preach socialism, the media that promotes liberal abstractions, and the politicians who pander to the least among us. .