Seacor Holdings chairman and chief executive Charles Fabrikant says today’s offshore downturn mirrors the decades of boom-and-bust cycles that have repeatedly driven owners onto the rocks — although today’s market may be the worst yet.

Centred on spikes in oil prices starting in the 1970s, the exact details for these four major cycles are varied but they all share one aspect as a constant: it is human nature to expect any “new normal” to last, he says.

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