We saw in the financial crisis how “the simultaneous failures of Irish institutions resulted from “bandwagon effects both between institutions (“herding”) and within them (“groupthink”), reinforced by a widespread international belief in the efficiency of financial markets. [lxii] We must constantly challenge ourselves, our thinking and our beliefs.
As Keynes wrote, “the difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds”. [lxiii] In the face of structural changes and big transitions, history may not be a good guide to the future.