John Maynard Keynes wrote 'The Economic Consequences of the Peace' in 1919, correctly predicting that the reparations imposed on Germany would destroy the German economy, leading to hyperinflation in the 1920s and ultimately to Hitler and World War II; this shows that a generation that understood economic consequences was able to see the danger ahead, unlike today's leaders living through a 'placid idyllic period' like the pre-WWI Victorians.