  ``Self-Organised Criticality'' (SOC) is the mechanism by which complex
systems spontaneously settle close to a *critical point*, at the edge between
stability and chaos, and characterized by fat-tailed fluctuations and
long-memory correlations. Such a scenario may explain why insignificant
perturbations can generate large disruptions, through the propagation of
``avalanches'' across the system. In this short review, we discuss how SOC
could offer a plausible solution to the excess volatility puzzle in financial
markets and the analogue ``small shocks, large business cycle puzzle'' for the
economy at large, as initially surmised by Per Bak et al. in 1993. We argue
that in general the quest for efficiency and the necessity of *resilience* may
be mutually incompatible and require specific policy considerations.
