A crack-up boom is something that can only happen in an economy that relies on fiat money (in either paper or electronic form) and (usually) fiduciary media, as opposed to the gold standard or other physical commodity money, because the available stock commodity places a physical limit on the quantity of money that can be issued and the market discipline imposed by a convertible gold standard helps prevent the overissuance of credit. 2 In the event that they ever become money, electronic cryptocurrencies whose underlying algorithms place inflexible limits on the quantity and rate that new units can be created (or mined) may provide a similar benefit of preventing hyperinflation and a crack-up boom.

As this crisis point approaches, the central bank has a choice: either to accelerate the expansion of the money supply in order to try to help businesses pay for the increasing prices and wages they are faced with and delay the recession, or to refrain from doing so at the risk of allowing some businesses to fail, asset prices to fall, and disinflation (and possibly a recession or depression) to occur. The crack-up boom occurs when the central bank chooses and sticks with the first option.