World Capitalist Crises: A Contemporary View

Crises are endemic to capitalism. There were 38 banking, currency and twin (combining both) crises in developed countries and emerging markets during the period 1945–71, and 49 during the period 1919–39 (Joyce 2013: 33). Between 1970 and 2011, there were 147 banking crises and 218 currency crises and 28 twin crises. There were also 66 cases of ‘sovereign debt default’ (ibid.: 1 94). The industrial cycle was decennial in nature, according to Marx (Marx 1978: 264, 596), who believed that crises were transitory, and no crisis was permanent (Marx 1968: 497).