A History of Big Recessions in the Long Twentieth Century

Description

This book examines the array of financial crises, slumps, depressions and recessions that happened around the globe during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It covers events including World War I, hyperinflation and market crashes in the 1920s, the Great Depression of the 1930s, stagflation of the 1970s, the Latin American debt crises of the 1980s, the post-socialist transitions in Central Eastern Europe and Russia in the 1990s, and the great financial crisis of 2008–9. In addition to providing wide geographic and historical coverage of episodes of crisis in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia, the book clarifies basic concepts in the area of recession economics, analysis of high inflation, debt crises, political cycles and international political economy. An understanding of these concepts is needed to comprehend big recessions and slumps that often lead to both political change and the reassessment of prevailing economic paradigms. Copyright_page Dedication Contents Figures Tables Boxes Acknowledgments 1 Introduction 2 Recession and Depression: An Overview of Theories and Empirics 3 World War I, Hyperinflation in the 1920s, and World War II 4 The Great Depression of the 1930s 5 Stagflation in the 1970s, Globalization, and the Financial Crisis of 2008–2009 6 Two Depressions in the Early Twenty-First Century 7 Soviet-Type Socialism and the Postsocialist Transition 8 Economic Crises in Latin America and East Asia 9 Synthesis and Interpretation Appendix References Index