Financial Crises and Economic Depressions: An Introduction

The paper introduces a selection of essays presented at the annual meeting of the Associazione Italiana per la Storia dell’Economia Politica (STOREP), held in Florence in June 2009, whose thematic section was devoted to “Financial Crises in the Economists’ View”. It is argued that the volume offers a variety of historical perspectives on the crisis, based on the insights provided by prominent authors working on the topic in the twentieth century, that, although largely forgotten in mainstream economic theory, may prove to be both enlightening to understand the actual causes of the crisis and instrumental to design the path to help the economy get out of it.