Causal Mechanism Registry

Events don't repeat; processes do.

In 1930 in Chicago, Samuel Insull borrowed money to buy back the shares a rival had gathered in his electricity empire, so as not to lose control of it. He meant to protect it. Two years later the empire collapsed, and that debt was one of the links that made the structure impossible to carry in a falling market.

In the 880s in China, the Tang court gave its regional commanders more troops and more authority to put down rebellions. The force that crushed the rebellions went on to break the centre itself apart.

In Zaire, Mobutu kept his own army weak on purpose for years, out of fear of a coup. When a rebellion backed by neighbouring countries began in 1996, the army barely resisted, and the regime fell within a year.

Three continents, more than a thousand years, three decisions, and one process: a move made to keep control destroys what it was meant to protect. History books rarely put these three events side by side. We do.

What we do

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