Any of this sound familiar? A mania for quick profits sweeps the stock market, driven by investors in the City and smiled upon by Government. Confidence collapses, leading to a huge crash. Parliament makes a big show of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, and then ensures that those chiefly responsible get away scot free. There follows a decade of suspicion of the Establishment, fuelled by the Press, looking for corruption and greed in High Places. Not the present day, but the 1720s, which also saw a flourishing of art, and particularly satirical art: Beggar’s Opera, Gulliver’s Travels. So we’ve got that to look forward to.