On the Financial Crisis 2008 from a Physicist's viewpoint: A Spin-Glass Interpretation

Abstract

In an informal way, a number of thoughts on the financial crisis 2008 are presented from a physicist's viewpoint, considering the problem as a nonergodicity transition of a spin-glass type of system. Some tentative suggestions concerning the way out of the crisis are also discussed, concerning Keynesian "deficit spending" methods, tax reductions, and finally the method "ruin and recreate" known from optimization theory. Also the de Almeida-Thouless instability line of spin-glass theory is given a financial interpretation.