In the preface, here's a telling commentary on the environment at the time the book was written:

"New types of financial instruments were created by the score while others, such as junk bonds, lost favor.  In the United States, a declining real estate market and regulatory failures combined to undermine the entire financial services sector.  The savings and loan industry was the first casualty, and banks and insurance companies threatened to follow.  As we write this (1993), the general economic recession has entered its second year."

Are we in a time machine?

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again.  There is nothing new under the sun."

-- Ecclesiastes 1:9