[katovatzschyn]

To be simplistic, it seems that things are quite different this time. The fundamentals of crises may be the same or similar, but the world has -never- been linked in the way it currently is, and the world population, and total consumption has -never- been as high as it currently is.

I hate to argue against an entire book with a sentence like that, but claiming that this is a "pretty vanilla financial crisis" seems to take the overall situation in a dismissive light that I don't agree with.

[j_baker]

I think you and the book agree. The title "This Time is Different" is a reference to how economists tend to see the same signs that always indicate a financial crisis and say "This time is different".

When I said that this is a vanilla financial crisis, I meant that the things the grandparent post mentions aren't necessarily unique, albeit more widespread than normal. In fact, it's surprising how frequently you see the same patterns appearing.