Economic History & Financial Crises
Empirical research analyzing the structural causes of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, the 2000 Dot-Com equity collapse, 2008 subprime de-leveraging, and Dutch Tulip Mania — drawing directly from Federal Reserve archives, Senate hearings, and NBER papers.
Published Research Dossiers (14)
Peer-Grounded Open Archive
How Did the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis Unfold? (The Thai Baht Float, Currency Contagion & The IMF)
An economic and macroeconomic autopsy of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis: the breakdown of fixed currency pegs, unhedged foreign currency debt maturity mismatches, George Soros’s speculative attacks, regional currency contagion across the Asian Tigers, and controversial IMF structural adjustment programs.
What Is the Triffin Dilemma in Global Reserve Currencies? (Robert Triffin, Bretton Woods & US Hegemony)
A monetary and macroeconomic analysis of the Triffin Dilemma: the inherent conflict between short-term domestic economic objectives and long-term international liquidity demands faced by any sovereign issuer of the world’s primary global reserve currency.
How the 1970s Stagflation Crisis Broke Keynesian Economics (OPEC Oil Shocks & The Volcker Shock)
An economic history of the 1970s stagflation crisis: the collapse of the Bretton Woods monetary system, the breakdown of the stable Phillips Curve, supply-side OPEC oil embargos, rational expectations theory, and Paul Volcker’s 20% federal funds rate shock.
What Is the Prisoner’s Dilemma & Nash Equilibrium in Game Theory? (Axelrod’s Tournaments & Tit-for-Tat)
A formal mathematical and behavioral study of non-cooperative game theory: payoff matrices, strictly dominant strategies, John Nash’s equilibrium theorem, and Robert Axelrod’s computer tournaments establishing Tit-for-Tat in the iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma.
How the South Sea Bubble of 1720 Collapsed (Isaac Newton’s Fortune, Debt Swaps & The Bubble Act)
A financial and political autopsy of the South Sea Bubble of 1720: the conversion of £31 million in British national debt, parliamentary bribery, stock price manipulation from £128 to £1,000, Sir Isaac Newton’s ruinous £20,000 loss, and the resulting Bubble Act.
What Is the Tragedy of the Commons? (Garrett Hardin vs. Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel Institutional Governance)
An economic and institutional investigation into common-pool resources: Garrett Hardin’s Malthusian dilemma of overgrazing, free-rider dynamics, and Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel Prize-winning empirical proof of sustainable community self-governance without state or privatization.
What Caused the 1929 Wall Street Stock Market Crash? (Black Tuesday & The Great Crash)
A macroeconomic and financial history investigation into the October 1929 Wall Street Crash: 10% margin debt speculation, public utility pyramid trusts, the Bank of England rate hike, and the Federal Reserve’s monetary contraction.
How Did the 2000 Dot-Com Bubble Form and Burst? (Pets.com to Amazon Survival)
A financial history and tech economics investigation into the 1995–2000 Dot-Com Bubble: the Netscape IPO, price-to-eyeballs valuation mania, venture capital burn rates, the 78% NASDAQ crash, and the surviving telecom infrastructure.
What Really Happened During the 1637 Dutch Tulip Mania? (Debunking the Myth)
A forensic archival audit of 17th-century Dutch notary records in Haarlem and Amsterdam: separating the real Semper Augustus bulb futures contract speculation from 19th-century Victorian financial mythology.
How Did John Law and the 1720 Mississippi Bubble Bankrupt France?
The financial thriller of history’s first hyperinflationary stock mania: how a Scottish fugitive took over France’s royal finances, printed paper billions, and triggered a national collapse.
How Did the Medici Bank Network Finance the Italian Renaissance?
The financial history of how 15th-century Florentine bankers invented modern multinational enterprise, circumvented Catholic usury laws, and patronized the greatest artistic flourishing in Western history.
How Did Subprime Mortgages and CDOs Trigger the 2008 Recession?
A forensic investigation into the financial engineering architecture—from teaser-rate NINJA loans and synthetic CDO tranches to AIG’s credit default swap collapse—that turned a localized housing slump into a global economic catastrophe.
Why Did Lehman Brothers Collapse? (The 72-Hour Timeline & Forensic Breakdown)
A forensic 72-hour investigation into what happened with Lehman Brothers in September 2008: Repo 105 deception, toxic subprime mortgages, the failed Barclays acquisition, and the global credit crash.
What Caused the 2008 Financial Crisis? (Subprime Mortgages, CDOs & Fed Timeline)
The macroeconomic causes of the 2008 financial crisis: predatory subprime mortgage securitization, credit rating agency failures, Gaussian copula CDO derivative risk, and systemic liquidity collapse.