1st Edition

An Analysis of Charles P. Kindleberger's Manias, Panics, and Crashes A History of Financial Crises

By Nicholas Burton Copyright 2017
    112 Pages
    by Macat Library

    112 Pages
    by Macat Library

    Perhaps the most peculiar feature of a financial bubble – one that Charles Kindleberger's classic work Manias, Panics and Crashes draws particular attention to – is the inability of those trapped inside it to grasp the seriousness of their predicament. They know in principle that bubbles exist, and they know that the financial crashes that result from them are capable of destroying individuals' wealth and entire economies. Yet whenever and wherever a bubble begins to form, we're told that this time things are different, that there are sound reasons to continue to invest and to presume that prices will continue to rise steadily forever.

    Kindleberger's achievement is to use the critical thinking skill of evaluation to examine this strange mindset and the arguments advanced in support of it. He harshly judges the acceptability of the reasons used to create such arguments, and highlights the issues of relevance and adequacy that give us every reason to doubt them. Kindleberger also uses his powers of reasoning to effect an unusual achievement – writing a work soundly rooted in economics that nonetheless engages and convinces a non-specialist audience of the correctness of his arguments.

    Ways in to the text 

    Who was Charles P. Kindleberger? 

    What does Manias, Panics and Crashes say? 

    Why does Manias, Panics and Crashes matter? 

    Section 1: Influences 

    Module 1: The Author and the Historical Context  

    Module 2: Academic Context  

    Module 3: The Problem 

    Module 4: The Author's Contribution  

    Section 2: Ideas 

    Module 5: Main Ideas 

    Module 6: Secondary Ideas 

    Module 7: Achievement 

    Module 8: Place in the Author's Work 

    Section 3: Impact 

    Module 9: The First Responses  

    Module 10: The Evolving Debate 

    Module 11: Impact and Influence Today 

    Module 12: Where Next? 

    Glossary of Terms 

    People Mentioned in the Text 

    Works Cited

    Biography

    Dr Nicholas Burton holds a degree in economics from Bowdoin College, Maine, and a DPhil in English literature from Oxford. An award-winning playwright who has taken on subjects as diverse as the financial crisis and the lives of the Romantic poets, he currently lectures on play-writing at Royal Holloway, University of London, and is the Creative Arts Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford.