For hundreds of years, bad times have followed good times in the economy.
The Roaring ‘20s were followed by the Great Depression. The post-World War II boom in the U.S. was followed by a decade of high inflation.
The same pattern holds around the world. Bankruptcies followed the Dutch tulip mania of the 1630s. A Japanese boom that ended in 1989 was followed by 33 years of bad times that may not be over yet.
One measure of bad times is bankruptcies. An older study showed bankruptcies of listed companies rose when recessions hit.
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