These essays explain why financial crisis breaks out, its social, economic and cultural consequences, and the limitations of policy in the face of economic stagnation induced by financial inflation.

Introduction; 1. Why the World Economy Needs a Financial Crash; Part I. The Economics of Financial Inflation; 2. Money in Globalised Times; 3. Neo-liberalism and International Finance; 4. Financial Innovation: Better Machines for Financial Inflation?; 5. The Inflation of Goodwill; 6. Leverage and Balance Sheet Inflation; 7. Inflation in Financial Markets; 8. Asset Inflation and Deflation; Part II. The Culture of Financial Inflation; 9. Twentieth-Century Finance Theory: The Frauds of Economic Innocence (in memoriam J. K. Galbraith); 10. Fischer Black’s ‘Revolution’; 11. Economic Inequality and Asset Inflation; 12. The Wisdom of Property and the Culture of the Middle Classes; Part III. Financial Crisis; 13. Everything You Need to Know about the Financial Crisis but Couldn’t Find Out Because the Experts were Explaining It; 14. The Limitations of Financial Stabilisation by Central Banks; 15. International Business and the Crisis; 16. Developing Countries in the Crisis Transmission Mechanism; Epilogue; Notes; Index