Saturday, 27 March 2010: 16:06
The current financial crisis makes us all remember both previous economic crisis that have marked our history and large bankruptcies, that were intensely debated through trade literature, all having similar elements with what we are nowadays experiencing. Us trying to prove that we learn nothing from history would be pointless since we have repeatedly watched history repeating itself over and over again. This is even more obvious where capital markets are concerned, their tendency of relearning the same lesson seeming to be one of their most intriguing characteristics. We believe a short incursion into the past might help us look into the present with different eyes. Even the words of Sir David Tweedie, chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board, following the fall of Enron, sound like true even if he was to say it just a year ago:
… we plan to learn from this case … history is full of examples of those who said “it couldn’t happen here” and came to regret it. I do not plan to repeat that mistake (Sir David Tweedie, chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board).
Our paper develops an analysis into the past, focusing on similarities with the current financial crisis and still believing in lessons that could and should be learnt.