With the news of the collapse of the brokerage Bear Stearns, the pending collapse of Countrywide Mortgages, and other meltdowns sure to follow, the world financial system is currently in more dire straits than most believe. It reminded me of this series of paintings by Thomas Cole–the English-born American painter–titled “Course of the Empire”. He chose something from Byron (the poet, not my next door neighbor) to describe the series:
There is the moral of all human tales;
‘This but the same rehearsal of the past
First Freedom, and then Glory: when that fails
Wealth, vice, corruption
Notice the mountain in the background in each painting…
The Savage State
The Pastoral State
Consummation of Empire
Destruction
Desolation
Clouds, Clocks, and Sitting at Tables 
