Name: How we can predict the next financial crisis
Uploaded: 2013-06-17T14:57:16Z
Duration: 16 min 47 s
Description: The 2007-2008 financial crisis, you might think, was an unpredictable one-time crash. But Didier Sornette and his Financial Crisis Observatory have plotted a set of early warning signs for unstable, growing systems, tracking the moment when any bubble is about to pop. (And he's seeing it happen again, right now.)

The 2007-2008 financial crisis, you might think, was an unpredictable one-time crash. But Didier Sornette and his Financial Crisis Observatory have plotted a set of early warning signs for unstable, growing systems, tracking the moment when any bubble is about to pop. (And he's seeing it happen again, right now.)

How we can predict the next financial crisis

Financial disasters like the Great Recession are not random shocks but the result of growing instabilities, often visible long before collapse. Massive losses, such as $30 trillion wiped from global stock markets in 2008, tend to follow a pattern of bubbles growing faster and faster until they burst. By detecting signs of unsustainable, super-exponential growth—what some call 'dragon-kings'—we can spot early warnings of trouble before catastrophe strikes. This pattern is seen not only in finance, but also in biology and the environment, giving hope that with vigilance and the right tools, future crises can be averted.