With the economy in the shape that it currently is, it’s important to remember that old axim, “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” What does 1968’s The Wonderland of Knowledge have to teach 2008’s Wall Street?

Let’s take a look at it’s five page entry on “The Board of Trade.” Despite the fact that you have never heard of it, The Board of Trade still exists today, forty years later, in Chicago, IL. What does it do? Well, why don’t I let the book tell you…

So, after doing independent research, I learned the following: have you ever gone to the Cotton Store and asked yourself “why is this cotton so expensive? Who decides how much I have to pay for cotton?” The answer to your question is The Board of Trade. This also holds true when you ask yourself similar questions at the Wheat, Corn, Oats, and Rye Stores.

And since we are in a time before electronic scoreboards, surely these balding white men in ugly ties had a system of communicating information beyond screaming at one another, correct?

“Correct,” says The Wonderland of Knowledge, an inanimate object. “Allow me to present them to you in an easy-to-read chart.”

Many people think that the thumbs up gesture originates with TV’s The Fonz or TV’s Ceasar, but in actually it comes from the Chicago Board of Trade. So next time someone asks how your weekend was and you indicate your answer with an extended thumb, you’re really saying: “Aaaaaayyyyy… seven eights of a cent.”

So how can we apply what we’ve learned of The Board of Trade to our current economic climate? What lessons can we reassess and find new meaning with this new information?

Unfortunately, we learn nothing. I am sorry to have wasted your time.