1: Financial Crises: a Hardy Perennial -- 2: The Anatomy of a Typical Crisis.-3: Speculative Manias -- 4: Fueling the Flames: the Expansion of Credit -- 5: The Critical Stage – When the Bubble Is About To Pop -- 6: Bernie Madoff: Frauds, Swindles, and the Credit Cycle -- 7: Domestic Contagion:...

During the ongoing financial crisis the analysis of similar historical crises has gained more and more attention among economic researchers and forecasters. Existing studies, however, do not tackle the immense heterogeneity that is present in cross-country samples in a formal and consistent way....