The 21st century will resemble nothing so much as the 12th century, according to a fascinating essay forwarded to us by Jonathan Auerbach of Auerbach & Grayson.  The essay appeared recently in the Financial Times and was written by a friend of Jonathan’s, Parag Phanna. “Unlike almost everything else you’ve read by the many pundits provoking you with their year-end view for the future,” notes Jonathan, “this rich and readable piece doesn’t once mention inflation, deflation, deficits, PIGS, BRICS, or any of the other cliched verbal currency pitched at us lately. Parag apprehends your scrambled cyclical assumptions and firmly yanks you out of that vortex to recognize the secular implications with which we deal. He eloquently articulates the historical wellspring of our more pedestrian and prosaic view of the advent of the levelling of the global economic and social playing field.”   Click here to access the essay.