Talk:Capitalist crisis

Gold standard
Some of the historical phenomena are due to the dynamics associated with hard currency based on metals, particularly gold, although use of any concrete thing which is in limited supply would produce the same result. Fiat money attempts to avoid such difficulties although, obviously, imperfectly. I'm not sure Marx ever wrote about this, or even understood it. The best exposition of this in an historical context that I know of is in Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, by Carroll Quigley ISBN 094500110X User:Fred Bauder Talk 22:20, 1 October 2011 (MSD)
 * PDF file of the book at carrollquigley.net (pp.62-63 missing) User:Fred Bauder Talk 23:23, 1 October 2011 (MSD)
 * The introductory paragraph of Panic of 1837 illustrates nicely the effect of enforceable demands for payment in specie. User:Fred Bauder Talk 02:42, 8 October 2011 (MSD)

Existential crises versus normal crises
It is not clear what differentiates a normal financial crisis from one which results in seizure of power by the working class and replacement of the outmoded capitalist system by social control over economic management. Even the most severe crises such as The Great Depression, while they may result in advances in organization, consciousness, and power of the working class, may be survived by the capitalist class. User:Fred Bauder Talk 18:00, 23 October 2012 (MSK)