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Swindles.
Robberies and Panics
A highly desirable central display will cover swindles and panics
over the ages. Ponzi, BCCI, Herrstat, Cornfeld, Insull, Whitney,
Law, South Sea Bubble, Tulip crisis, Assignats, Hyperinflations.
There is an opportunity for small films on both the story of the
swindle, bubble or panic and a segment on its diagnosis.
Exchange, Trust and Contracts
It is easy for the public to be mystified by the abstraction
of finance and to fail to see the straightforward mundane technological
problems it is designed to solve. How was one to get the payment
of a church tithe in the 15 th century from north Germany to Rome;
how were merchants in London and Paris going to settle with each
other? Direct problems in transportation, communication and fears
of accident, pirates or highway robbery made it imperative to design
other arrangements than merely sending bags of gold. But the development
of new means of transportation and packaging, preservation and inventorying
has totally transformed the possibilities for fast and safe trade
over the last five hundred years. The web has changed many features
of economic and social connection into a "net". This has
many ramifications for finance and international trade.
This section will contain many interactive games, for example some
set in the context of the 15th century with choices of payment by
letter of credit or the transportation of bullion, or 19th century
options to pay for international trade.
Technology and Communication
The technology of transportation has developed in parallel with
the technology of communication together with the spread of law
and the growth of population. These aspects of the change of trade
merit a parallel and highly related treatment with that of the more
physical aspects of transportation, packaging, handling and inventorying.
In particular for any level of technology there have been close
relations between the economics of communication and distribution
and the density of population. These can be illustrated and in particular
the changes in the nature of this relation in the last fifty years
are of considerable financial significance. The world of the Internet
is considered in the context of economic life |
