Financial Whirlpools

Introduction: Systems Thinking and the Great Global Recession

While the vulnerabilities that created the potential for crisis were years in the making, it was the collapse of the housing bubble—fueled by low interest rates, easy and available credit, scant regulation, and toxic mortgages—that was the spark that ignited a string of events, which led to a full-blown crisis in the fall of 2008.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission¹

… the major problems of our time cannot be understood in isolation. They are systemic problems—interconnected and interdependent.

Fritjof Capra²

After economic crisis hit the United States in September 2008 and spread its virus across the world, countless authors have offered interpretations of what happened. From ...