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Books > Business & Economics > Economics > Financial crises & disasters
"Robert Shiller is two for two in predicting and identifying bubbles that will burst. This book is a must read for anyone predicting future bubbles or charting the course of recovery from our current difficulties."--Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard University "The subprime crisis has visited ruin on thousands of Americans, and it threatens the health of the global economy. In this timely and fascinating book, Robert Shiller, an expert on irrational behavior in financial markets, conducts a postmortem. How could so many smart people have been so wrong? Shiller concludes that unchecked financial innovation works poorly in asset markets, and he describes the institutions needed to prevent future bubbles."--Gregory Clark, author of "A Farewell to Alms" "Reading this exciting book is like watching a skilled surgeon at work. The diagnosis of the subprime mortgage mess is biting in its intensity--the best I have seen--and encompasses the human tragedy as well as the economic and financial crisis. The recommended therapy develops logically from Shiller's analysis and is unique in concept as well as powerful in application. The crystal-clear writing style makes his manifesto a pleasure to read."--Peter L. Bernstein, author of "Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street" and "Capital Ideas Evolving" "Robert Shiller is a visionary."--Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" "Rigorous, innovative, and accessible, "The Subprime Solution" is a wonderful book that will appeal to a wide audience. Robert Shiller is uniquely qualified to analyze the recent unprecedented problems in the mortgage and housing markets, and the way theyhave spilled over into the wider credit markets. He has again proven his ability to communicate complex ideas and evidence about financial markets."--Diane Coyle, author of "The Soulful Science"
The 2008 financial crisis was among the worst in history, yet nevertheless offers invaluable lessons. Recorded as the third largest bankruptcy in history, it caused Iceland to experience an instant collapse. Iceland defied the rules of finance; no bailout was attempted, capital movements were restricted, bankers jailed, and creditors fought. Amazingly, although Iceland was hit hardest, it recovered fastest. In The Combat Zone of Finance is an insider's account told through anecdotes, dialogues and personal stories. The author, Svein Harald Oygard, was offered the job of Central Bank Governor of Iceland just as the crisis struck. He saw how institutions and leaders behaved from inside the system in its deepest crisis. Some made billions; others got burned. Their behaviour, strengths and weaknesses were revealed as in no other country. Oygard analyses these events in the context of financial risks facing the world in 2020; knowledge of which is becoming increasingly relevant.
Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology Volume 38A features a symposium on public finance in the history of economic thought co-edited by guest editors Claire Silvant and Javier San Julian Arrupe, as well as general-research essays from Cosma Orsi and John Henry, and a heartfelt obituary by Mattheus Assaf of his friend, Gabriel Oliva, winner of RHETM's first Warren Samuels Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology. Including chapters on British public debt in the 19th century, French financial controversies in the mid-1800s, and a thoughtful reflection on the USA's New Deal, this volume is a global exploration of public finance history. For any researcher or student interested in the history of economics, this is an essential read containing the most up-to-date research.
Raghuram Rajan was one of the few economists who warned of the global financial crisis before it hit. Now, as the world struggles to recover, it's tempting to blame what happened on just a few greedy bankers who took irrational risks and left the rest of us to foot the bill. In "Fault Lines," Rajan argues that serious flaws in the economy are also to blame, and warns that a potentially more devastating crisis awaits us if they aren't fixed. Rajan shows how the individual choices that collectively brought about the economic meltdown--made by bankers, government officials, and ordinary homeowners--were rational responses to a flawed global financial order in which the incentives to take on risk are incredibly out of step with the dangers those risks pose. He traces the deepening fault lines in a world overly dependent on the indebted American consumer to power global economic growth and stave off global downturns. He exposes a system where America's growing inequality and thin social safety net create tremendous political pressure to encourage easy credit and keep job creation robust, no matter what the consequences to the economy's long-term health; and where the U.S. financial sector, with its skewed incentives, is the critical but unstable link between an overstimulated America and an underconsuming world. In "Fault Lines," Rajan demonstrates how unequal access to education and health care in the United States puts us all in deeper financial peril, even as the economic choices of countries like Germany, Japan, and China place an undue burden on America to get its policies right. He outlines the hard choices we need to make to ensure a more stable world economy and restore lasting prosperity.
Syriza's victory in the recent Greek general election shook the foundations of the Western political establishment and gave hope to the millions suffering the austerity measures imposed by the European Troika. Millions asked, how did this happen and what is it about Greece that created such a centre of radicalism? This insider's account, from Syriza's Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and economist Christos Laskos, shows that that the narrative of Greek exceptionalism is a myth. The blame game that has been played by the EU powers is an ideological tool used to shift attention from the disillusionment and anger at the European and global capitalist economic order. By alienating an entire nation of people, the Troika has revealed the internal contradictions of the modern neoliberal establishment, as well as the inadequacies of the earlier social-democratic Keynesian regime. Tsakalotos and Laskos suggest that there is very little that differentiates Greece from other countries struggling under austerity, and that parties such as Syriza could usher in a new, democratic and socialist era across the continent.
In contrast to the USA, Europe has struggled to return to the growth path it was on prior to the financial crisis of 2007-11. Not only has the recovery been slow, it has also been variable with Europe's core countries recovering more quickly than those on the periphery. It is widely believed that the best way to address this slow recovery is through structural reform programmes whereby changes in government policy, regulatory frameworks, investment incentives and labour markets are used to encourage more efficient markets and higher economic growth. This book is the first to provide a critical assessment of these reforms, with a new theoretical framework, new data and new empirical methodologies. It includes several case studies of countries such as Greece, Portugal and France that introduced significant reforms, revealing that such programmes have very divergent, and not always positive, effects on economic growth, employment and income inequality.
An accessible, comprehensive analysis of the main principles and rules of banking regulation in the post-crisis regulatory reform era, this textbook looks at banking regulation from an inter-disciplinary perspective across law, economics, finance, management and policy studies. It provides detailed coverage of the most recent international, European and UK bank regulatory and policy developments, including Basel IV, structural regulation, bank resolution and Brexit, and considers the impact on bank governance, compliance, risk management and strategy.
In this sweeping, incisive post mortem, Dean Starkman exposes the critical shortcomings that softened coverage in the business press during the mortgage era and the years leading up to the financial collapse of 2008. He locates the roots of the problem in the origin of business news as a market messaging service for investors in the early twentieth century. This access-dependent strain of journalism was soon opposed by the grand, sweeping work of the muckrakers. Propelled by the innovations of Bernard Kilgore, the great postwar editor of the Wall Street Journal, these two genres merged when mainstream American news organizations institutionalized muckraking in the 1960s, creating a powerful guardian of the public interest. Yet as the mortgage era dawned, deep cultural and structural shifts-some unavoidable, some self-inflicted-eroded journalism's appetite for its role as watchdog. The result was a deafening silence about systemic corruption in the financial industry. Tragically, this silence grew only more profound as the mortgage madness reached its terrible apogee from 2004 through 2006. Starkman frames his analysis in a broad argument about journalism itself, dividing the profession into two competing approaches-access reporting and accountability reporting-which rely on entirely different sources and produce radically different representations of reality. As Starkman explains, access journalism came to dominate business reporting in the 1990s, a process he calls "CNBCization," and rather than examining risky, even corrupt, corporate behavior, mainstream reporters focused on profiling executives and informing investors. Starkman concludes with a critique of the digital-news ideology and corporate influence, which threaten to further undermine investigative reporting, and he shows how financial coverage, and journalism as a whole, can reclaim its bite.
Global Bank Regulation: Principles and Policies covers the global regulation of financial institutions. It integrates theories, history, and policy debates, thereby providing a strategic approach to understanding global policy principles and banking. The book features definitions of the policy principles of capital regularization, the main justifications for prudent regulation of banks, the characteristics of tools used regulate firms that operate across all time zones, and a discussion regarding the 2007-2009 financial crises and the generation of international standards of financial institution regulation. The first four chapters of the book offer justification for the strict regulation of banks and discuss the importance of financial safety. The next chapters describe in greater detail the main policy networks and standard setting bodies responsible for policy development. They also provide information about bank licensing requirements, leading jurisdictions, and bank ownership and affiliations. The last three chapters of the book present a thorough examination of bank capital regulation, which is one of the most important areas in international banking. The text aims to provide information to all economics students, as well as non-experts and experts interested in the history, policy development, and theory of international banking regulation.
When the crash of the U. S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the silent crash, had taken place over the previous year, in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn t shine, and the SEC doesn t dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can t pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren t talking. The crucial question is this: Who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a risk compounded daily by the creation of those arcane, artificial securities loosely based on piles of doubtful mortgages? Michael Lewis turns the inquiry on its head to create a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 best-selling Liar s Poker. Who got it right? he asks. Who saw the real estate market for the black hole it would become, and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception? And what qualities of character made those few persist when their peers and colleagues dismissed them as Chicken Littles? Out of this handful of unlikely really unlikely heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our times."
If you’ve got some money in the bank, chances are you’ve never seriously worried about not being able to withdraw it. But there was a time in the United States, an era that ended just over a hundred years ago, in which bank customers had to pay close attention to whether the banking system would remain solvent, knowing they might have to rush to retrieve their savings before the bank collapsed. During the National Banking Era (1863–1914), before the establishment of the Federal Reserve, widespread banking panics were indeed rather common. Yet these pre-Fed banking panics, as Gary B. Gorton and Ellis W. Tallman show, bear striking similarities to our recent financial crisis. In both cases, something happened to make depositors—whether individual customers or corporate investors—“act differently” and find reason to question the value of their bank debt. Fighting Financial Crises thus turns to the past for a fuller understanding of our uncertain present, investigating how panics during the National Banking Era played out and how they were eventually quelled and prevented. Gorton and Tallman open with a survey of the period’s “information environment,” tracing the development of national bank notes, checks, and clearing houses to show how the key to keeping order was to disseminate information very carefully. Identifying the most effective responses based on the framework of the National Banking Era, they then consider the Fed’s and the SEC’s reactions to the recent crisis, building an informative new perspective on how the modern economy works.
The untold story of how FDR did the unthinkable to save the American economy The American economy is strong in large part because nobody believes that America would ever default on its debt. Yet in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt did just that, when in a bid to pull the country out of depression, he depreciated the US dollar in relation to gold, effectively annulling all debt contracts. From FDR's order for Americans to sell the government all their gold holdings to the Supreme Court confrontation that threatened to finish the New Deal, American Default provides a compelling account of an economic and legal drama that embroiled a nation.
Commentary on the financial crisis has offered technical analysis, political finger pointing, and myriad economic and political solutions. But rarely do these investigations reach beyond the economic and political causes of the crisis to explore their underlying intellectual grounds. The essays in this volume delve deeper into the cultural and intellectual foundations, philosophical ideas, political traditions, and economic movements that underlie the greatest financial crisis in nearly a century. Moving beyond traditional economic and political science approaches, these essays engage thinkers from Hannah Arendt to Max Weber and Adam Smith to Michel Foucault. With Arendt as a catalyst, the authors probe the philosophical as well as the cultural origins of the great recession. Orienting the volume is Arendt's argument that past financial crises and also totalitarianism are rooted, at least in part, in the tendency for capital to expand its reach globally without regard to political and moral borders or limits. That politics is made subservient to economics names a cultural transformation that, in the spirit of Arendt, guides these essays in making sense of our present world. Including articles, interviews, and commentary from leading scholars and business executives, this volume offers views that are as diverse as they are timely. By reaching beyond "how" the crisis happened to "why" the crisis happened, the authors re-imagine the recent financial crisis and thus provide fresh thinking about how to respond.
Supported by ten years of research, Wigmore has gathered extensive data covering the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recovery to provide the first comprehensive history of the period. Financial crises cannot occur unless institutional investors finance the bubbles that created them. Wigmore follows the trail of data putting pressure on institutional investors to achieve higher levels of returns that led to over-leverage throughout the financial system and placed such a burden on recovery. Here is a 'very good picture - and painful reminder - of the crisis' evolution across multiple asset classes, structures, participants, and geographies.' This work serves as a critical analysis of modern portfolio management and an important reference work for financial professionals, academics, investors, and students.
This book explores the nature of money and banking throughout their history, and applies this to the study of financial crises. The first part of the book covers the evolution of monetary arrangements, money creation and the business of banking since their earliest manifestations to the present day, showing how changes in the business of banking led to a transformation in the money we use. The second part of the book applies the understanding acquired during the first part to the study of financial crises, showing that money is taken out of circulation when bank loans are paid back. This key insight is at the core of the mechanism that explains financial crises, since an economy that sees its money supply diminish is also an economy that cannot generate enough demand for its own goods and services. Financial crises result when bank lending slows down or comes to a halt - while outstanding bank loans are still due for repayment. The mechanism is discussed in detail, and the crucial role of banks highlighted. Adequate policy measures to prevent crises, or to mitigate their effects, are then put forward in light of this mechanism. The book will be of interest to researchers and students of economic and financial history, as well as those working in finance, banking and economics more widely.
Provides a comprehensive analysis of macroeconomic issues in developing Asia, including economic growth projections and prospects by country and region. This year's theme chapter explores how to strengthen disaster resilience.
The inside story of what really happened at Lehman Brothers and why it failed In The Devil's Casino: Friendship, Betrayal, and the High Stakes Games Played Inside Lehman Brothers, investigative writer and Vanity Fair contributing editor Vicky Ward takes readers inside Lehman's highly charged offices. What Ward uncovers is a much bigger story than Lehman losing at the risky game of collateralized debt obligations, swaps, and leverage. A can't put it down page turner that opens the world of Wall Street to view unlike any book since Bonfire of the Vanities, except that The Devil's Casino isn't fiction.Details what went on behind-the-scenes the weekend Lehman Brothers failed, as well as inside Lehman during the twenty years preceding itDescribes the feudal culture that proved both Lehman's strength and its Achilles' heelWritten by Vicky Ward, one of today's most connected business and finance writers On Wall Street, Lehman Brothers was cheekily known as "the cat with nine lives." But as The Devil's Casino documents, this cat pushed its luck too far and died?the victim of men and women blinded by arrogance.
In India, the external payments crisis of 1991, which led to the initiation of economic reforms, was the result of deteriorating fiscal situation during the latter half of 1980s. Fiscal imbalance was identified as the underlying cause of the twin problems of inflation and the difficult balance of payments position. Hence, fiscal consolidation constituted a major objective of the policy response. This consolidation was planned through reduction in the size of budget deficit and public debt in relation to the India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). For this purpose, it became necessary to: (a) enhance tax and non-tax revenue, (b) curtail current expenditure growth, (c) restructure public sector undertakings, including disinvestment, (d) improve fiscal-monetary co-ordination, and (e) deregulate financial system. The need for improvements in budgetary practices led to the enactment of India's Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act 2003, which ushered the Indian economy into an era of fiscal consolidation based on fiscal policy rules. This book provides a vivid account and analysis of reforms in India's fiscal policy during the post-liberalization period (1991 onward).
This fascinating book presents a lively discussion of key issues resulting from the recent financial crisis. The expert contributors explore why the global financial crisis occurred, how it destroyed wealth, triggered mass unemployment, and created an unprecedented loss of control on employment, monetary policy, government budgets. Important topics encompassing the origin and impact of the crisis, governance failure, regulatory forgiveness, credit splurges, asset bubbles and the greed of institutions are analysed from wide-ranging perspectives of not only academics in both economics and law, but also from industry practitioners and regulators. This multidimensional evaluation of what went wrong concludes with an outline of what is currently being done to prevent another major crisis, and prescribes recommendations for the implementation of further preventative measures. This book will prove a compelling read for economics, finance and law scholars, as well as for practitioners including accountants, lawyers and financial market players. Contributors include: R.P Buckley, M. Bond, W. Byres, J. Carmichael, F. Clarke, K. Davis, G. Dean, J. Diplock, J. Farrar, A. Fels, N. Gaston, A. Khalid, R. MacKinnon, T. Makin
The picture is the same in virtually all countries: the poorest members of society are hit hardest while those who caused the crisis are spared. With contributions by trade unionists and academics from a number of European countries, this book considers the effects of the economic crisis, presents statistics, and offers proposals for socially balanced policies in these trying times. Topics include old-age provision and active aging, improving working conditions in Central and Eastern European countries, strategies to enhance the quality of work in Europe, and perspectives on improving gender equality in the European Union.
Capitalism is in a profound state of crisis. Beyond the mere dispassionate cruelty of 'ordinary' structural violence, it appears today as a global system bent on reckless economic revenge; its expression found in mass incarceration, climate chaos, unpayable debt, pharmaceutical violence and the relentless degradation of common life. In Revenge Capitalism, Max Haiven argues that this economic vengeance helps us explain the culture and politics of revenge we see in society more broadly. Moving from the history of colonialism and its continuing effects today, he examines the opioid crisis in the US, the growth of 'surplus populations' worldwide and unpacks the central paradigm of unpayable debts - both as reparations owed, and as a methodology of oppression. Revenge Capitalism offers no easy answers, but is a powerful call to the radical imagination.
The new, fully-updated edition of the respected guide to understanding financial extremes, evaluating investment opportunities, and identifying future bubbles Now in its second edition, Boombustology is an authoritative, up-to-date guide on the history of booms, busts, and financial cycles. Engaging and accessible, this popular book helps investors, policymakers, and analysts navigate the radical uncertainty that plagues today's uncertain investing and economic environment. Author Vikram Mansharamani, an experienced global equity investor and prominent Harvard University lecturer, presents his multi-disciplinary framework for identifying financial bubbles before they burst. Moving beyond the typical view of booms and busts as primarily economic occurrences, this innovative book offers a multidisciplinary approach that utilizes microeconomic, macroeconomic, psychological, political, and biological lenses to spot unsustainable dynamics. It gives the reader insights into the dynamics that cause soaring financial markets to crash. Cases studies range from the 17th Century Dutch tulip mania to the more recent US housing collapse. The numerous cross-currents driving today's markets--trade wars, inverted yield curves, currency wars, economic slowdowns, dangerous debt dynamics, populism, nationalism, as well as the general uncertainties in the global economy--demand that investors, policymakers, and analysts be on the lookout for a forthcoming recession, market correction, or worse. An essential resource for anyone interested in financial markets, the second edition of Boombustology: Adopts multiple lenses to understand the dynamics of booms, busts, bubbles, manias, crashes Utilizes the common characteristics of past bubbles to assist in identifying future financial extremes Presents a set of practical indicators that point to a financial bubble, enabling readers to gauge the likelihood of an unsustainable boom Offers two new chapters that analyze the long-term prospects for Indian markets and the distortions being caused by the passive investing boom Includes a new foreword by James Grant, legendary editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer A comprehensive exploration of how bubbles form and why they burst, Boombustology, 2nd Edition is packed with a wealth of new and updated information for individual and institutional investors, academics, students, policymakers, risk-managers, and corporate managers alike.
Through the tools of economics, Annunziata's vivid and gripping book shows how the global financial crisis was caused by a failure of leadership and common sense in which we all played a role. The insights of this clear and compelling analysis are essential for learning the right lessons from the crisis, and seeing new threats around the corner.
Risk management solutions for today's high-speed investing environment Real-Time Risk is the first book to show regular, institutional, and quantitative investors how to navigate intraday threats and stay on-course. The FinTech revolution has brought massive changes to the way investing is done. Trading happens in microsecond time frames, and while risks are emerging faster and in greater volume than ever before, traditional risk management approaches are too slow to be relevant. This book describes market microstructure and modern risks, and presents a new way of thinking about risk management in today's high-speed world. Accessible, straightforward explanations shed light on little-understood topics, and expert guidance helps investors protect themselves from new threats. The discussion dissects FinTech innovation to highlight the ongoing disruption, and to establish a toolkit of approaches for analyzing flash crashes, aggressive high frequency trading, and other specific aspects of the market. Today's investors face an environment in which computers and infrastructure merge, regulations allow dozens of exchanges to coexist, and globalized business facilitates round-the-clock deals. This book shows you how to navigate today's investing environment safely and profitably, with the latest in risk-management thinking. * Discover risk management that works within micro-second trading * Understand the nature and impact of real-time risk, and how to protect yourself * Learn why flash crashes happen, and how to mitigate damage in advance * Examine the FinTech disruption to established business models and practices When technology collided with investing, the boom created stratospheric amounts of data that allows us to plumb untapped depths and discover solutions that were unimaginable 20 years ago. Real-Time Risk describes these solutions, and provides practical guidance for today's savvy investor. |
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