Temporary Economic Crises

Description

In traditional theory of economic crisis, and in all its manifestations, there is no fundamental difference between economic disorder and economic crisis: the two types of economic turmoil are both considered temporary states. This book is a methodical study of deep-seated causes of economic crises. The aim of the book is to explain the key difference between economic disorder and economic crisis. Its key argument is that economic disorder is a permanent condition, whereas economic crises are a series of transitory periods. Economic crises, unlike economic disorders, are acute and frenzied volatilities that are unpredictable and short-lived. Humans cannot survive in a condition of perpetual economic crises but can only accommodate life under unremitting economic disorders. The book also explores the root cause of economic crisis. Unlike the received wisdom in economics, this book looks at the root cause of such hysterical economic turbulences as a result of an innate propensity of human fallibility. The final section of this book looks at the ramifications of this alternative perspective on macroeconomic policy formation and implementation. This book is a major contribution to the literature on economic disorder and crises and will be of great interest to readers of economic theory, philosophy of economics, and the history of economic thought. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Cyclonic ebbs and flows of trade Introduction From prudent to enthusiast and deranged traders The Dutch tulip crusaders National sovereignty and the state finance The end of the medieval era Equality before the guillotine Power of appropriation and expropriation Conclusion 2 High and low times of industrialization Introduction The cradle of industrialization Banking and money economy Great wars, revolutions, and depressions Hyperinflation and economic depression Empires and the Frankenstein states The generations of wars The pandemic of globalization Conclusion 3 Crypto-economy and trade cycle Introduction The last decades of the last millennium The new right and the old left The 2007–2008 credit depression Altruistic or self-serving subprime mortgage The predatory financial products Conclusion 4 Over-trading, trade cycles, and crises Introduction Parting with self-imposed blind faith From trade to over-trading Consolidation of three trends No poor on nature's banquet The original model of capitalism From trade cycle to economic crisis Two crises and three illusory capitalisms Conclusion 5 Economic crises and human propensity to extremism Introduction The root cause of the economic crisis Human propensity to extremism Monotheism, the extreme end of beliefs Atrocities – consigned to oblivion Embedded extremism in economics Conclusion 6 Coping with unknowns and human follies Introduction Digression from fatalism Every person can acquire knowledge Perfect and imperfect truths Liberty and pursuit of self-interest Economics of might is right Fixed known and the changing unknown Permissible and impermissible boundaries Extremism and survival The end, the means and adaptability Conclusion Bibliography Index