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.
James BuchanAlmost all novels are improved by cutting from the top. On their first pages, authors parade those favourite effects which disgust the impartial reader.
James BuchanThe year 2008 was a reminder to those who had forgotten that there is such a thing as history and that the cycle of famine and feast in commerce, first identified in antiquity and well understood in the Middle Ages, was not suddenly abolished in modern times.
James BuchanUp until the Depression, recession had a moral character: it was supposed to purge the body economic of the greed and excess that attends a business expansion.
James Buchan