Includes bibliographical references and index.

An introduction to the evolution of financial fragility -- Illustrations of manias, panics, and crises -- Capitalism: a culture of accumulation as the context for innovation -- The impact of uncertainty on (in)forming behaviour -- Conventional approaches: speculation as a fool's paradise -- Justifications and means: the institutional organisation of speculation -- The other side of the coin: the influence of credit creation and banks on speculation -- Recoil in crisis: from peak to panic -- Societies in transition: time-space comparisons of financial instability -- The bottom line: towards institutional indicators of financial fragility -- Evolving financial crises: reflections and projections.