This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

"This Time is Different" discuss financial crises throughout history, using a comprehensive database spanning centuries. The sources explore various types of crises, including sovereign external and domestic debt defaults, banking crises, inflation, and currency crashes, providing quantitative definitions and historical examples. They highlight the recurrent nature of these events across different countries and periods, emphasizing the lack of transparency in government finances and the phenomenon of the "this-time-is-different syndrome." The texts also examine the aftermath of crises, noting prolonged downturns in asset prices and output, and discuss the challenges of "graduation" from a history of financial instability.