History lesson

Excerpt:

I keep reading everywhere that Greece is the new Lehman Brothers .... Lehman itself was the new Argentina (2001), and Argentina was the new CreditAnstalt (1931), and CreditAnstalt was the new previous Argentina (1890), and the previous Argentina was the new South Sea Company (1720), which was the new Philip II of Spain, who through his multiple defaults (1557, 1560, 1575, 1596) managed repeatedly to be the new himself. Governments and bankers have been merrily tossing the bankruptcy baton back and forth for half a millennium.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1a9cf0ac-7019-11df-8698-00144feabdc0.html