COULD STABLE MONEY HAVE AVERTED THE GREAT CONTRACTION?

Could Morality Have

“ The Great Moderation , the Great Panic and the Great Contraction ” by Charles Bean

at the causes of the financial crisis and subsequent recession. He argues that much of what went wrong can be analysed using standard economic tools. The Great Moderation was a period of unusually stable macroeconomic activity in advanced economies. This was partly thanks to good luck, including the integration of emerging market countries into the global economy, and partly a dividend from str...

Could the South Have Won the War?

Although the Confederate surrenders in April 1865 marked the end of major hostilities of the American Civil War, disputes of interpretation continue to characterise the study of the conduct and outcomes of the War. Whilst this may be simply a feature of all historiography, the extent of these interpretive disputes may well be a direct consequence of the nature of the primary sources that have s...

Could plants have cognitive abilities?

Vegetation is traditionally regarded as passive, doing nothing but what is essential to grow and survive. Evidence is accumulating, however, in support of formerly esoteric notions that plants can communicate, remember, even count--features that one would call cognitive if they were observed in animals. Michael Gross reports.

How Could Language Have Evolved?

The evolution of the faculty of language largely remains an enigma. In this essay, we ask why. Language's evolutionary analysis is complicated because it has no equivalent in any nonhuman species. There is also no consensus regarding the essential nature of the language "phenotype." According to the "Strong Minimalist Thesis," the key distinguishing feature of language (and what evolutionary th...