The Rafael del Pino Foundation, as part of its Master Lecture programme, received Kenneth Rogoff on 1 March 2011, who gave the lecture "This time it's different: eight centuries of financial nonsense" as part of its Master Lecture programme on 1 March.
Kenneth Rogoff said: "If my esteemed co-author Carmen Reinhardt and I have learned anything from studying these eight centuries, it is that human nature does not change. People naturally think that they are smarter than their predecessors; that their country will not suffer the problems that other nations have; that they will not go through the same hardships as their grandparents; that they are different and have learned their lesson. This ignorant arrogance is part of being human. It is something we should be aware of, especially in good economic times, when things are going well, the money is flowing and it is very tempting to think that this time it is indeed different and there is nothing to worry about. In the book we talk about all the occasions when this thought has been repeated throughout history. Moreover, there are very clear coincidences, in terms of figures, in all these crises, which show that, despite all those times when humanity has thought in this complacent way, all the crises have developed and unfolded in a very similar way. But we have learned something from eight centuries of financial crises. Let us not forget that we managed to avoid a second Great Depression at the worst moments of this latest crisis. People tend to forget that there was a great risk of this happening. This shows that some conclusions had been reached.
