Financial crises are a normal feature of contemporary market economies. They are analogous to diseases or natural disasters and, like some diseases and most natural disasters, are currently beyond the ability of science to prevent or to accurately predict. In part this because most of the preconditions of financial crises also occur in situations that do not develop into a crisis. Nevertheless, it is possible to minimize the risks of a crisis and to mitigate the damage when they do happen.

While financial crises usually do not kill people directly, the economic damage can lead to numerous indirect deaths, with monetary costs that are comparable to wars and that are far greater than the largest natural disasters. Compare the Subprime Crisis to recent natural disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina or Harvey.