The long cycle and financial system: Crisis, credit contraction and profit

Abstract

Economic cycles and the financial system are related in different ways, one of the most outstanding that have analyzed the relationship between the economic cycle and finance, has been the study of long waves or Kondratieff cycles. Another form of analysis has been through the monetary cycle that leads to financial crises (Minsky and Kindleberger among the best known) and finally a different way has been the study of the particularities of each cycle of boom-financial frenzy and decline. This paper proposes a brief account of how the relationship was analyzed: productive and financial capital in the long waves, through the approach of three of three authors who have marked milestones in the analysis: Nikolai Kondratieff, Ernest Mandel and Carlota Pérez. Our objective is to investigate a central question that is repeatedly asked: why, despite the scientific-technical revolution based on information technology, with the development of robotics, cybernetics, biotechnology and nanotechnology, a stage has not been achieved of solid and sustained growth leading to an expansionary stage.