History’s nastiest economic collapses captured in one animated graphic

The U.S. has endured 26 major economic meltdowns

As fears of another economic disaster waft over a stubbornly resilient stock market, cost-estimating website HowMuch.net took a look at major collapses throughout history. The sweeping animated graphic starts with the devaluation of bronze and silver currencies after the Second Punic War back in 202 B.C. and finishes with the crumbling of China’s stock market earlier this year.
The crises were broken up into nine categories ranging from financial, like the one we suffered seven years ago, to the speculative bubble, which most of us are all too familiar with.
Here are some notable examples over the years:

“Credit: The Crisis of 1763 began in Amsterdam with the collapse of Leendert Pieter de Neufville and spread to Germany and Scandinavia.”

“Supply Side Shock: In 1970, the world’s major industrial countries entered into an energy crisis, with countries facing substantial petroleum shortages, real and perceived, as well as elevated prices.”

“Speculative Bubble: After several years of a booming Internet industry, stocks began to sharply decline in 1999, affecting major economies, including U.S., Germany, Great Britain, and Italy.”

“Stock Market Crash: The Wall Street Crash of 1929, or Black Tuesday, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the U.S.”
HowMuch.net also took an overall look at which countries have managed to endure the most collapses over the years. The U.S. tops the list with 26. That’s one crisis every nine years and twice as many as Spain, Italy and Portugal, which share the second spot.

“Over time, the United States developed a boom-to-bust economic cycle,” wrote Raul Amoros, HowMuch.net’s content director. “Given the strength of the U.S. economy and sophistication of its capital markets, the U.S. is able to have shorter cycles by effectively adjusting policy when the economy expands and contracts. Under this cycle theory, one would expect the next U.S. economic collapse to occur in 2025, probably much sooner.”
Watch the entire video here.