The Middle of an Era

The lessons for today are drawn from Fibonacci, Kondratieff, and Schacter. Your first guess, alas, is incorrect. This threesome did not make up the GOP ticket in New York’s 1965 municipal elections. They were, rather, three of the more asseverative students of the human condition, each of whom made a durable if unintended contribution to political understanding.

Leonardo Fibonacci: a thirteenth century Italian scholar, is best known for his study of the Great Pyramid at Giza. During the course of his research, he concluded that Egyptian architects had employed in their design a fixed progression of numbers: 2-3-5-8-13-21-34-55-89 and so on. In this series, as will be seen, the ratio of successive numbers comes asymptotically to 1.618. These numbers, cannily promoted and widely remarked, came to be known as the Fibonacci series.

About the Author

Neal B. Freeman

Neal B. Freeman, businessman and journalist, was a director of National Review Inc. for 38 years.

Featured Tags

Manage following

Economics

The lessons for today are drawn from Fibonacci, Kondratieff, and Schacter. Your first guess, alas, is incorrect. This threesome did not make up the GOP ticket in New York’s 1965 municipal elections. They were, rather, three of the more asseverative students of the human condition, each of whom made a durable if unintended contribution to political understanding.

Leonardo Fibonacci: a thirteenth century Italian scholar, is best known for his study of the Great Pyramid at Giza. During the course of his research, he concluded that Egyptian architects had employed in their design a fixed progression of numbers: 2-3-5-8-13-21-34-55-89 and so on. In this series, as will be seen, the ratio of successive numbers comes asymptotically to 1.618. These numbers, cannily promoted and widely remarked, came to be known as the Fibonacci series.