The madness of auction politics has returned

The madness, it seems, has returned.

Perhaps like those insects that lay eggs that can survive drought and then swarm back, it never left, just lay dormant. Santayana’s maxim of the inevitability of repetition if one comes from a position of ignorance could be the war cry of Irish policy: “We repeat our mistakes, and we’re proud of it. Vote us.” And we do.

Booms and crashes are part of the inevitable cycle of modern capitalist economies. One does not have to be a Marxist to appreciate the need for a historical perspective. In fact, the lack of a historical awareness, of a historical context, is arguably a major cause of the recent global financial crisis.