And by consequence, much of what they write and say shows the effects of perspective distortion: the current recession invariably looks greater than the previous one. Architects in 15th century Florence discovered how to draw a correct perspective.
Much later, the architects designing the building of the Nederlandsche Bank used this knowledge: By making the tiles that line the outside of the building larger for higher stories, they cancelled out the distortion in the eye of the observer below. Today, I have set myself the ambitious goal of putting the business cycle in perspective.