Financial market cycles need to be seen in the context of the long-term economic cycles of which they are a part. However, the relationships are not deterministic: all markets have their own individual patterns and rhythms, and multi-dimensional feedback processes are involved. So, although the current credit crunch has arrived ‘on time’, it is unlikely to have the results that many now fear. Indeed, the emergent patterns are more consistent with a new wave of secular inflation than with an imminent deflation.