EIRP Proceedings, Vol 7 (2012)

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to analyze comparatively the main economic theories regarding the economic crises, including the premises for starting the present financial and economic vulnerabilities on national and international level. On ideological level, the present global financial and economic crisis, similar to the other ones throughout history, initiated an intellectual debate among several applicable theories: Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” liberal theory, Keynes’s state interventionism theory and even neo-Marxist theories. The issue of the economic cycle and the crisis is a very complex one that cannot be analyzed and explained in a few pages, because talking about the crisis and the economic cycle supposes an analysis of all aspects of the market economy. Thus, we try to found out which of these theories best explain the economic cycles and crises and we believe that the Great Depression of ‘29-‘33 confirmed to a great extent the “Austrian” theory of the economic cycle.