JSPES, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Fall 2009)
pp. 356-373

The Future Will Marvel: The Follies Leading to the “Great Credit Crunch of 2007-2009”

Dwight D. Murphey

Wichita State University, retired

The current age prides itself on its technical sophistication. It is likely, however, that future generations will look back on the “follies of global finance” that led to the “Great Credit Crunch of 2007-2009” with the same incredulity with which later generations have so long perceived the “tulip mania” in seventeenth century Holland1. This article will explore some of the substantial economic commentary that has recently described in detail the “perfect storm” that came to be present in global finance in the early twenty-first century. The literature detailing how the table was set for economic catastrophe will be a fascinating subject of study for as long as people seek to understand the vagaries of human behavior in general and in finance.