An Introduction

The term financial crisis is a broad one. It can be applied to various situations where either institutions or assets lose their value, usually quite a large part. The term covers a mixture of different crises, including but not limited to, banking panics, stock market crashes, bubble bursting etc. However these financial crises are not a modern invention. Reinhart and Rogoff note that "they have been around since the development of money and financial markets." In fact Max Winkler, in his book Foreign Bonds: An Autopsy, traces inflation, with the view to reduce debt, back to Dionysius of Syracuse who was around in the 4th Century BC (Reinhart & Rogoff, 2009) (Winkler, M. p21) One of the first bubbles to burst was the tulip mania in the Netherlands. 


Nor are they are a rare event. If you look back over history you can see records of many different crises dating all the way from the 3rd Century up until the present day. In this blog I will look at various different crises during history and the events leading up to and surrounding them. I will also looking at the similarities between past crises and also looking at similarities between past crises and the most recent crisis, which started in 2007.