Historical Information requested

[xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Dear List,

I have a specific question to scholars in the list with a background
in economic history and political economy. I would appreciate specific
dates and names if possible.

A. In the "core" of the world system (US, Britain), which TWO specific
FINANCIAL crises would you choose to compare, in terms of analyzing the
structure of capital, periods of recession, and business/state response to
crises? I know the recent long term capital-management hedge fund (fall
1998) that received some billions bailout brokered by the federal
reserve. However, I am not quite sure if this is so much at the core of
the american capitalist system at the moment, as to draw comparisons to
another crisis that took place under different historical circumstances.

Thus, which crisis would you select from EACH category, comparatively,
that you think played a critical role in the restructuring of US
political economy and capital interests (historical and contemporary).

1. one in late 19th or early 20th centuries (ie., great depression)
2. one in late 20th century


B. This is a question to third world people in the list if there are any:
in the periphery or semi-periphery of the world system, which TWO (or one)
specific FINANCIAL crises would you choose for the same reasons mentioned
above? It can be crises other than financial crises (like commodity
exchange crisis)

1. one in late 19th or early 20th century
2. one in late 20th century


C. The timing of crises can be same for both periphery and core (for
example, great depression for both US and Turkey).


D. In Britain, there were two financial crises in the banking sector.
One in 1890s, and the other in 1990s. They are called Barings crises. This
is a merchant bank, the bank of Queen, which went to bankrupt twice. Its
debts were taken over by the central bank of England. do you know a
similar case in the economic history of US? this is related to
question A.


E. How would you specifically define financial crisis? I need to clarify
the meaning. bank crisis? business crisis? currency crisis? or all? Is it
a distribution or a production problem? Is it related to Hilferding's
definition of "finance capital" as the merging of bank capital with big
business capital, as was the case in Germany at the begining of the 20th
century? Is finance capitalism historically relevant to US capitalism?


thanks for your attention...

Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx
Doctoral student
Political Science
SUNY/Albany
Nelson A. Rockefeller College