New frames of reference bring to light or make prominent new aspects of societies. Support-bargaining and money-bargaining makes prominent the role of support in determining the course of societies. Intellectual support-bargaining defines the mechanism by which frames of reference are formed, and their function in societies. Money-bargaining displays the role of money as bargaining counter, contrasting with the ‘veil’ concept of money in neoclassical theory. It shows money-bargaining as an evolutionary process, rather than a system tending to equilibrium, as in neoclassical theory. In conjunction with support-bargaining, it involves communal, as well as individual, interest. The four crises all involve prominent political interests engaging with financial interests, so that the idea of financial support-bargaining provides a useful analytical frame. The escalation of asset prices, driven by group enthusiasm, and characteristic of financial crises, is more independent of direct political involvement. It does, however, require inputs of information conducive to the escalations, and availability of credit. The withdrawal of credit constrains money-bargaining chains and threatens depression. Support-bargaining generates its own valuations, independent of the valuations made through money-bargaining; sometimes clashing with money valuations. Social ‘culture’ derives from the valuations of support-bargaining.