Crashes and Crises: Lessons from a History of Financial Disasters

Professor Connel Fullenkamp of Duke University guides you through four centuries of economic disasters—from tulip mania in the 1600s to the Great Recession of 2007–2009. Each of his 24 lectures covers a notable incident of financial misfortune or folly that is worthy of a Hollywood thriller. You hear how Charles Ponzi conducted the moneymaking scam that bears his name; how mining companies in the Old West sprang up like internet startups, with a similar imbalance of winners and losers; how hyperinflation destroyed Germany’s economy at the beginning of 1920s and how its resulting stock market crash nearly sank America’s stock market. You also hear how the Great Depression deepened through a wave of bank panics; how in more recent times the U.S. savings and loan industry went belly-up; how Orange County in California went bankrupt; how Japan’s hard-charging economy came to a screeching halt; how currency crises swept the globe; how subprime mortgages nearly sparked a second Great Depress