Prices & Crises.

Different crises.
Connected stories.

Explore how banking, prices, and policy shaped
everyday life in the United States.

Ten stories. Many connections.

Choose any case to explore · Follow the path below

Prices &
Crises A U.S. economic
mind map
Banking Panics
Inflation Shocks
Fighting Inflation
Modern Crises
    • Banking Panics
    • Inflation Shocks
    • Fighting Inflation
    • Modern Crises

    Lines group stories. They do not imply cause.

    A walk through time Selected cases · Periods overlap · Spacing is not to scale

    Read the connections.

    Inside each story, words explain the link. A contributing factor is not the only cause.

    Contributed to
    Helped bring about an outcome.
    Led to a policy response
    Prompted action by policymakers.
    Happened alongside
    Occurred together; not proof of cause.

    A few ideas
    to start with.

    You do not need an economics degree to follow the story. These five ideas are enough to get going.

    New to the map? Try the .

    Inflation
    Prices rise overall, so the same money buys less. One expensive item alone does not mean inflation.
    Deflation
    Prices fall overall. Cheaper goods may sound good, but fixed debts can become harder to repay when incomes fall.
    Unemployment
    People who are available for work and looking for a job cannot find one. It does not include everyone without a job.
    GDP
    Gross domestic product is the value of goods and services produced in a country. Here, GDP means real GDP: adjusted for price changes.
    Interest rates
    The cost of borrowing money, or the return on savings, usually stated as a yearly percentage. Higher rates can slow spending and make loans cost more.

    Slower inflation does not mean falling prices. If prices still rise, just more slowly, that is disinflation. The 1981–82 recession shows why this distinction matters.

    History has more
    than one explanation.

    These are ten selected historical cases, not a scientifically ranked “top ten.” They include bank panics, recessions, and inflation episodes. The five larger nodes are starting points, not a ranking.

    Each story separates the trigger, prices, people, output, and policy. Branches are reading guides: a case can connect to more than one theme. The Great Inflation overlaps the 1981–82 recession and the Savings and Loan crisis.

    Early price and output estimates are less precise than modern data. The 1929–33 case covers the Depression’s steep initial collapse; the wider Depression lasted longer. Economic effects differed across households and regions.

    Explore the source library

    Summaries draw on Federal Reserve and FDIC histories, official reviews, and BLS and BEA data. These institutions’ histories are retrospective accounts; reports, releases, and data provide primary evidence. Each case links to its own sources.

    Historical summaries reviewed September 2026.