History Repeating Itself

A recent post featured an excerpt from Peter Kropotkin's essay "The Spirit of Revolution." Even that excerpt was long, so I've extracted a portion that sounds as if he's speaking of recent Wall Street melt-down events and our current economic situation:

In periods of frenzied haste toward wealth, of feverish speculation and of crisis, of the sudden downfall of great industries and the ephemeral expansion of other branches of production, of scandalous fortunes amassed in a few years and dissipated as quickly, it becomes evident that the economic institutions which control production and exchange are far from giving to society the prosperity which they are supposed to guarantee; they produce precisely the opposite result.

Pretty much speaks for itself... back then, in 1880, they let great industries fail rather than bailing them out.

Sources:

Peter Kropotkin, "The Spirit of Revolt," Le Rèvoltè, Geneva, 1880.