When small countries crash -- Sinking Scotland -- Caribbean follies -- Austria, credit-anstalt and the Great Depression -- When Finland almost failed -- Albanian pyramid schemes -- Volcanoes, Icelandic banks, and McDonald's -- Ireland's time of troubles -- Acropolis now -- Conclusion.

A Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) is a comprehensive and economy-wide database recording data about all transactions between economic agents in a specific economy for a specific period of time. A SAM extends the classical Input-Output framework, including the complete circular flow of income in...