Why and how questions and statistics

During the last days three statistics were published in relation to the riots of 6-10 August in England. At the time of writing, over 2,000 arrests were made in connection with the riots. Of those arrested, 75 per cent have previous convictions for similar offences, 25 percent have over 10 convictions for similar offences and 50 percent are under the age of 20. The three statistics contribute to a general answer to why there were riots if not to questions of why there were riots then and why there, in the particular locations. The statistics make little contribution to an answer to how? This is especially true if the how question is linked to a related question: how did the riots stop? For answers to the latter two questions, not just rioters but the police need to be considered.

Contributor: Geoff Williams. Sempringham [ehistory.org.uk] eLearning Office.

Categories that become stuck in the past

The Cold War ended and communism ceased to be an opponent to the West Liberal Democracies some 20-years ago but the concepts that date from the early nineteenth century during a time of crude manufacture, as judged by modern systems, continue to catch the mind of everyday thought. Karl Marx, as epitomised by his laconic and luminous Manifesto, 1848, has made a major contribution to this stasis. Marx’s depiction of the capitalist, the factory owner, who is juxtapositioned opposite a multitude of unskilled labourers, is massively outdated: this ‘capitalist’ is superseded by capital markets were most ‘capital’ is the sum of small and medium-sized pension savings of a large proportion of ‘Western-style’ societies. To help clarity of debate, capitalist should be excluded from nearly all debate.

Contributor: Geoff Williams. Sempringham [ehistory.org.uk] eLearning Office.

Capital markets in the present and 1930s

After the collapse of Lehman Bros, 2008, and related financial crisis, there has been much talk of the Wall Street Crisis, 1929, and subsequent economic disruption. In these columns we have argued that it is helpful to look backwards in order the better to understand the present, as in our piece on Cranford [27 October 2010], but this has no relevance to the current world finance situation. Current capital markets are based entirely on confidence whereas in the 1930s the ‘gold standard’ was a direct or indirect influence. We are surprised when commentators make reference to the 1930s because conclusions drawn from comparisons with the 1930s are false.

Contributor: Geoff Williams. Sempringham [ehistory.org.uk] eLearning Office.