"Financial economics long ago parted ways with the idea of history, developing instead an increasingly elaborate set of abstract models. Some of these have been a blessing for those attempting to make money in the markets, but they have proved far less useful to those charged with regulating and managing global finance. When it comes to the bigger questions about where we are, how we got here, and what comes next, the age-old arts of rhetoric and narrative remain indispensable. In this sense global finance continues to depend on historical discourse, and especially when things seem to defy neat forms of explanation. The return to prior episodes of crisis is above all a return to history, and it is repeated most vigorously when history itself seems to be falling apart."
Amin Samman History in Financial Times (2019) p.109-110
