Saturday, June 2, 2012

Do we ever learn anything from history?


“What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.”
George W.F. Hegel, 1830

This quotation is given at the beginning of a fascinating article in today's Weekend Australian A Lesson worth its weight in gold.

It recounts similarities (and some differences) between Europe's current financial problems and those from the 19th century. The desire to implement a common currency was also behind the failed Latin Monetary Union.

Aside: further illustrating "there is nothing new under the sun" in some respects the article is similar, including the Hegel quote, to an article from October 2011, by Oliver Hartwich in the Business Spectator.


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