If boom and bust cycles are the nature of capitalism then doesn't that prove the system is broken?

I mean how often does your computer have to crash before you get it replaced? It seems like capitalism crashes every couple of decades and has a major crisis ever other generation. It seems like the system itself has flaws that exist independent of the individual capitalists.

and not just something that happens in capitalism. The Fourth Turning describes boom and bust cycles going back hundreds and hundreds of years.

And there are far too many people who come along thinking they are smarter than everyone else. And of course, as did Reaganites: they were going to fix the system. After all, govt regulations were curtailing the would be thieves on WALL STREET, taxation was FAIR and govt was actually functioning the way it was supposed to and in the mind of some, that was a problem. Capitalism was serving a vast majority of american citizens and a few were just not satisfied with their millions, they had to have billions. And of course, some transnational corporations just lusted after greater market share and more profits.

the downs. Humans are about greed and capitalism feeds those compulsions IMO. IMO it's a broken system, does anyone seriously think this is the final financial system 'till the end of time ...

However, those holding the cash also hold the power, so it's not going to change much in my lifetime. We had a chance to make some changes for the better in 2008 and the opportunity was squandered.

It was a massive (manufactured) financial crisis which brought on recession conditions.

That is why it is not responding in the usual way. Some economists have been stressing this and predict that it will take a long time to get out of.

It was a manufactured crisis, as you said. It could last forever if the architects of it want it to...or it could be over tomorrow, if they so deemed it.

So the fake booms and busts are basically there to make people believe it's a real system rather than outright robbery.

You wouldn't give your money to a highway robber, would you? What if he owned the bank, though?

I have also suspected that the latest "crises" was manufactured in order to steal the very last drop from the workers.
However, throughout my lifetime whenever I start to get to the "middle class" a crises occurs, leaving me poor. Funny how the rich never lose.
Great examples from South Korea and Asia can be found in "Shock Doctrine"

There was a 2008 paper in the journal Nature about just this point. Looking at population dynamics in many species one observes periods of stability punctuated by periods of volitile booms and busts. Does this mean that the natural population dynamics of these species is "broken?"

No. That is just how some natural processes work. Look at earthquakes. Tectonic plates moving past one another. Pressure builds and suddenly EARTHQUAKE!!! But plate tectonics and geology are not broken.

In fact, on can argur that Keynesian economics exacerbates the natural swings in the business cycle by PREVENTING the smaller variations that would actually HELP an economy grow in the same way that we now know small fires actually HELP a forest grow. Small fires - like mild recessions - clean out the underbrush and deadwood and create nutrients and space needed for the forest to grow and be healthy. PREVENTING these small fires sets the stage for a massive conflagration. Perhaps that is why we see booms and busts getting more volitile. The more countercyclical policies we employ the more we put off the needed reckoning day and make it worse when it eventually arrives.

Just a thought.

If our elected leaders are causing economic collapses does that mean Democracy is broken?

and NOT exclusive to Capitalism

and sell high, during the boom. Then keep pumping it up and down. That's why they hate keynesian economics, becasue it found a way to avoid boom and bust and still have relative prosperity for all. Capitalisim hates that, they must have paupers and billionaires to stay alive!

NO ONE understands economics. It's almost as if the economy is a living breathing entity unto itself. NEVER in history have we been truly able to hold a steady economy for more than a decade. Why can't anyone truly figure out the economy?!

hormonal imbalance.

But President Obama wouldn't.