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… — James Buchan Copy Share Image
In rising financial markets, the world is forever new. The bull or optimist has no eyes for past or present, but only for the future, where streams of revenue play in his imagination. — James Buchan Copy Share Image
The prevailing ideology of the modern west - which is political economy - is in the doghouse. Having failed to notice atmospheric pollution, the… — James Buchan Copy Share Image
For 50 years, nuclear power stations have produced three products which only a lunatic could want: bomb-explosive plutonium, lethal radioactive waste and electricity so… — James Buchan Copy Share Image
Europe and North America, we are told, are less dependent on energy-intensive heavy industry than in the 1960s and 1970s. It seems we squeeze… — James Buchan Copy Share Image
In falling markets, there is nothing that has not happened before. The bear or pessimist sees only the past, which imprisons the wretched financial… — James Buchan Copy Share Image
The world dominion of western thought, forms of organisation, technology and military force is not God-given, nor eternal, nor greatly appreciated by the rest… — James Buchan Copy Share Image
Whatever else it was, Adolf Hitler's short-lived regime was also a colossal industrial process by which the wealth and productive power of much of… — James Buchan Copy Share Image
Ever since the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, the Muslim world has been in slow decline relative to the west. With… — James Buchan Copy Share Image
“My wages came to me not to satisfy any need-- mine were anyway private, affectionate, atrocious-- but to make my needs universal: to incorporate… — James Buchan Copy Share Image
For all their current prestige, Osama bin Laden and the suicide bombers are still regarded in all but the most desperate districts of Gaza… — James Buchan Copy Share Image
Almost all novels are improved by cutting from the top. On their first pages, authors parade those favourite effects which disgust the impartial reader. — James Buchan Copy Share Image
Profits in business always depend on the rate of interest: the higher the interest, the higher the rate of profit required. — James Buchan Copy Share Image
