Greed Created These Horrific Financial Crises

20. Post 1970s financial crises

Since the oil crises of the early 1970s the global economy has lurched between times of growth and tightening, with most of the periods of recession triggered by the same factors which have had a negative effect since the days of the tulip crisis. Unrestrained speculation and greed, the use of other people’s money to create speculative wealth, and geopolitical ambition have all led to smaller investors being wiped out, banks closing their doors rather than honoring their obligations, and governments to intervene, often with less than desirable results. According to a longstanding axiom, the lack of money is the root of all evil. When it comes to financial catastrophe, often the creation of money has been the foundation of evil, at least as applied to the accumulation of wealth.

The next financial crisis, whenever and wherever it emerges, will undoubtedly be born of the same pattern, and will be manipulated and taken advantage of by money-lenders, politicians, and pundits. As with all past financial crises, fortunes will be lost by many while made by a few. Some will demand government action to restrain the causes of the crisis, while others will excoriate government as the cause of the crisis, demanding that the free market be allowed to correct itself on its own. Unrestrained markets have always and will always be targets for those who believe that manipulation and speculation are the keys to the accumulation of wealth, and as such financial markets and the global economy will always be vulnerable to the vagaries of the human condition.

Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

“Tulipmania: Money, honor, and knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age”. Anne Goldgar. 2007

“The South Sea Bubble”. Ellen Castelow, Historic UK. Online

“The Panic of 1819: The First Great Depression”. Andrew H. Browning. 2019

“Banking Panics of the Gilded Age”. Gary Richardson and Tim Sablik, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Federal Reserve History. Online

“Free banking gone awry: the Australian banking crisis of 1893”. C. R Hickson and J. D. Turner, Financial History Review Volume 9. 2002

“Panic of 1901”. Globalsecurity.org. Online

“The Panic of 1907”. Jon R. Moen and Ellis W. Tallman, Federal Reserve History. Online

“The Forgotten Depression of 1920”. Thomas E. Woods Jr. Mises Institute Online. November 27, 2009

“The Stock Market Crash of 1929”. Gordon V. Axon. 1974

“The Great Depression”. The American Experience, Public Broadcasting System. Online

“Germany and the Great Depression”. Lawrence W. Reed, Mackinac Center for Public Policy. August 20, 2001. Online