Facing the economic facts of life

Abstract

The annual currency crisis is subsiding amid the usual recriminations, the usual calls for new rules to prevent speculation, and the usual arguments about gold and paper assets and the relative wickedness of countries which export too many goods or too much money. Because these arguments are so usual, there is a temptation to commit them to some limbo of unutterable boredom, and assume that everything will stagger on much as before. After so many incomprehensible alarms, even those closely concerned find it hard to realise that this time it is different; this time the situation really is dangerous.