and I'm thinking of Glick's book Faster, among other things.

air travel speed vs clipper ship or even diesel ship speed;  internet speed vs air mail speed or even telex, telegraph, fax speed.  fantastically complex embezzlements can now be perpetrated in the blink of an eye, clever Ponzi schemes grow and crash in a day's trading;  whole economies can be crashed in a few days of predatory currency speculation.  things could collapse fast in the old days too, but usually not such large things, or at least that's my impression...

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...