This paper investigates the spread of default using some simple notions of epidemiology developed by biologists for explaining the spread of infectious disease. An analogy is constructed between thresholds in the community's susceptibility to disease and A. Leijonhufvud's notion of corridors in the coordination of economic activity in a monetary economy.;The discussion is linked to the theoretical foundations of monetary theory, genral equilibrium and disequilibrium theory, P. Sraffa's system of joint production, the Bayesian approach to the identification problem in econometrics and an old issue in the philosophy of science.;Default epidemics are viewed as the destruction of wealth. A very simple system of simultaneous equations representing disease dispersal mechanisms is employed to develop the principles of a mixed estimation procedure designed to test for the impossibility of distinguishing among linear combinations of defaults in specific industries using observational and prior information regarding the community's trading patterns.
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