" It is as absurd to assume that, for any long period of time, the variables in the economic organization, or any part of them, will “stay put,” in perfect equilibrium, as to assume that the Atlantic Ocean can ever be without a wave." Irving Fisher Is a century-old economic theory relevant today? In 1996, economist Martin H. Wolfson argued in the Cambridge Journal of Economics that Fisher's explanation of debt deflation is still pertinent in a situation of falling asset prices, debt repayment difficulties, a reluctance to lend, a financial crisis, the impact on the banks, and the interdependency of the financial system. Since then, the Great Recession of 2007-2009 proved the prescience of both Fisher and Wolfson. In addition to Fisher's classic essay, this volume includes L. M. Holt's 1897 essay, "Panics and Booms", written at the end of a Depression with the aim of encouraging the discouraged. The volume concludes with an abridged version of Fisher's thesis that 100 percent banking would be a superior system than the current fractional-reserve banking system.