Sunday, December 21, 2008

Notable

"We are not in a recession. We are not even in a depression. We are at the end of an era." -- Robert Paterson (by way of James Fallows).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fallows' specific comments leave a bit to be desired but the recognition that we're witnessing the end of an era is spot on.

Far too many people are assuming that things will get back to normal after a 'short' (in generational terms) disruption. This seems to be more a point of faith than anything supported by facts.

There is absolutely no guarantee that every bad situation will eventually get better within the lifetime of anyone experiencing it. Life certainly didn't get better for Romans after 436BC, for example.

reason said...

436 BC? For Romans in general? You mean they should have skipped the empire bit, it was all a big mistake?

(Or maybe you meant 436 AD)?