Causes of Economic Crises

I recently read a book about economic crises written by a Christian. He seemed to argue that economic crises are caused by excessive debt and hyperinflation.

That is not quite right. In the past, hyperinflation was the cause of many crises. Now that the causes are understood, governments are more careful abut printing to much money. Of course there will always be situation where they have not alternative, like Zimbabwe.

The more important point is that hyperinflation is not the cause of the crises. It is usually the consequence of unwise government actions taken to deal with a crisis or shock. Weimar Germany got hyperinflation, because it lost a war and had impossible reparations imposed on it. Zimbabwe destroyed its agriculture by forcing out white farmers and giving the land to political loyalists who did not know how to farm it.

A whole range of things can cause economic crises and they can affect the economy through a variety for channels.

Nature	Agriculture	Industry	Tourism	Trade	Money System	Government
Drought	Drought	Sabotage	Epidemic	War	Bank Failure	Excessive expenditure
Earthquake	Disease	Fuel Shortage	Terrorism	Terrorism	Electronic sabotage	Building monuments
Volcano	Price Collapse	Electricity burnout		Fuel Shortage	Electronic burnout	Excess Debt
Forest Fires		Collapse of trading nations		Sanctions	Boom and Bust	Excess controls, eg interest rates
Storms				Shipping shortage		Printing Money
						Violence and corruption
	War