Hello Gumbo,
I chose my words carefully, and yes I agree that the prices may not have been so keen, but at least the violent swings would not have been so severe, and fewer of the less well off would have been so severely affected.
The volatility of the economy is down to the speed at which speculators can change their approach to any particular event, We are talking of only seconds now for a commodities trader to change a bid or sale price, so there is less inertia in the systems. This leads to the rapid changes which if a run of sorts is spotted, suddenly every one jumps and this accelerates the event.
In mechanical and electronic control systems, damping is used to help control excessive swings of a system, remove the damping and the conditions can start to oscillate and eventually cause a crash - strange that sounds like caravan instability!
That is exactly what is now happening in the money and commodities markets.