Carmen Reinhart, an economist at the University of Maryland, is the co-author of 'This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly'. She spoke to Financial News about the nature of financial crashes – and how past lessons have still not been learned.

Professor Reinhart has been studying financial crises for the better part of two decades. Covering crises in 66 countries throughout eight centuries, her book finds that these crises have shared certain characteristics and left behind lessons that continue to be ignored again and again.