Finance: Past, Present and Future

As well as being the 10th anniversary of the failure of Lehman Brothers, today is the 4th anniversary of the official launch of my book Banking in Crisis: The Rise and Fall of British Banking Stability, 1800 to the Present . Prior to 2008, I had almost given up writing about the history of banking stability - people weren't interested. Banking crises were merely of historical curiosity and therefore perceived to be irrelevant. 2008 changed that. All of a sudden, people wanted to know about past crises and historical banking stability. I was asked to speak to bankers and academics and out of these talks Banking in Crisis was conceived. If you are unfamiliar with Banking in Crisis , here is the blurb from the back of the book:  Can the lessons of the past help us to prevent another banking collapse in the future? This is the first book to tell the story of the rise and fall of British banking stability in the past two centuries, and it sheds new light on why banking systems...

History plays a very important role in society. It connects us to our ancestors and where we have come from. History also plays a very important role in helping us navigate the present and future. History helps us understand economics, national  politics, and geopolitics. Political and business leaders need a thorough and rounded education in history. But it appears that they are not getting it. Niall  Ferguson in the provocative video below explains why this is the case. In effect, he claims that university history departments are in the process of making themselves irrelevant because political, social and economic history are being squeezed out of the curriculum by anachronistic and politically correct history courses.