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Viewed From A Distance, Or Through The Eye Of The All-knowing Ceo Of The Universe, The Crash Of 2008 Followed The Usual Pattern. A Long-lived Boom Driven By Cheap Credit, Going Back As Far As 1982 (though Subject To Interruptions In The Mid-1980s And 1990s, And In 2001), Came To Grief Because Of A Rise In The Cost Of Borrowing Money.

When William The Conqueror Commissioned A Great Survey Of His English Realm At Gloucester In 1085, The Result Was A Work So Thorough, Fair, Dispassionate, And Wide-ranging That It Seemed To The Succeeding Generations To Have Come From Another World.

There Are Signs That The Age Of Petroleum Has Passed Its Zenith. Adjusted For Inflation, A Barrel Of Crude Oil Now Sells For Three Times Its Long-run Average. The Large Western Oil Companies, Which Cartellised The Industry For Much Of The 20th Century, Are Now Selling More Oil Than They Find, And Are Thus In The Throes Of Liquidation.

One Of The Consequences Of The Iranian Revolution Has Been An Explosion Of History. A Country Once Known Only From British Consular Reports And Intrepid Travelogues Is Now Awash With Historical Documents, Letters, Diaries, Grainy Video, Weblogs And Secret Police Files Of Questionable Authenticity.

Life Without Oil, In Fact, Would Be So Different That It Is Frightening To Contemplate. We Are Addicted, And It Is No Comfortable Addiction.