Starting with Medici and Fugger and ending with Barings and Royal Bank of Scotland under neo-liberal de-regulation, the author gives an account of how a number of banks failed over a 500 year-period. The author offers an explanation of the leading ideas about the world and good society at the time, and summarizes this narrative using Streeck & Schmitter's three bases for regulation of society: Community (spontaneous solidarity), State (hierarchical control), and Market (dispersed competition). The bank failures are presented in the context of social philosophies of the day (scholasticism, mercantilism, neo-liberalism, and libertarianism), and the changing business practices (Bills of Exchange, rents and financial instruments of various kinds). The dominating explanation of financial crises has been market-related. Here, the author argues that managerial failures are an important contributor. He demonstrates the failure of management to act on early signals such as existential risk, strategic stress syndrome, and lack of proper oversight by top management. The author encourages a return to ethical principles for banks, suggesting that his ethical aspect should be at the core of the credit process of banks in the future. With its interdisciplinary approach, this book will be an important contribution to the discussion surrounding bank failures. It will interest any scholar looking at the origins of financial crises and will be particularly useful for post-graduate students of economic and financial history, banking, finance and accounting.

This book examines the character and consequences of Egypt's economic reform and structural adjustment programme of 1991, along with the second stage of reforms in 1996. It contributes to the debates underpinning the political economy of economic reform and agricultural reform.

This book analyzes the performance of the economy and the economic policy actions of the Federal Reserve, the president, and the Congress in the twelve months preceding each of the eleven recession the United States has endured since the end of World War II. Incoroporating extensive real-time data, the book offers policy recommendations for preventing future recessions or at least limiting their impact.

In Barack Obama s America public works is once again a part of the national dialogue. Today it is offered as a solution to the economic downturn and to the public infrastructure crisis. This timely book examines the reasons for the economic crisis facing Main Street, and connects them to why the nation has structurally deficient bridges, weak levees, poorly maintained dams, and dilapidated schools.This book explores the new emerging dominant paradigm that will govern the nation, with a particular focus on the federal government s new emphasis to create jobs and build infrastructure. The book analyzes the history of U.S. public works, drawing upon and updating lessons from the New Deal, to understand the most effective way to organize a modern U.S. civic works project, as well as a civic works pilot project for the Gulf Coast. The pilot project is based on the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, which would create a minimum of 100,000 prevailing wage jobs and training opportunities for local and displaced workers on infrastructure projects and restoring the coastal environment using emerging green building technologies. One chapter features new contributions from Howard Zinn, Angela Glover Blackwell, and other leading scholars, public policy advocates, and community organizers weighing in on how an U.S. civic works project might solve our economic, infrastructure, and environmental crises. Issues discussed in this section include using civic works to create green jobs, to alleviate poverty, to train the next generation of Rosie the Riveters, to organize Gulf Coast residents, to end the human rights crisis in the region, and to implement a national government-run public works project.Listen to the "Journey Home Radio Show" interview with Scott Myers-Lipton: Journey Home Radio Interview"

This book analyses the financing problems of Greek small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), within a liberalized financial system and within an economic environment of fiscal and monetary constraints. Using recent data covering a ten-year period, the main aim of the research is to explain the interdependence between the situation of the banking sector generally and that of small and medium enterprises. The author argues that the reluctance of banks to lend to Greek companies because of the strict financing constraints, due to the national debt crisis, serves to exacerbate the cycle of economic recession. This factor seriously undermines the efforts of Greek companies to develop growth opportunities, and negatively affects their competitiveness as well as their ability to strengthen their market position. The author examines the supply and demand aspect of the problem: there is lower demand for lending due to the decline of demand for goods and services as well as a tightening of banks'credit standards, whilst on the supply side, the deteriorating financial situation of banks and their willingness to avoid increasing risk are important contributing factors. Finally, the author presents the main conclusions of the analyses carried out in the previous sections of the book and discusses some relevant recommendations for future research. Building on the extant literature, this book analyses the problem from the point of view of both businesses and the banking sector. The study is useful for scholars, businesses and policy decision makers who are interested in the problem of small and medium-sized enterprises financing.

Since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, the EU has been in almost permanent crisis mode. It is witnessing new dimensions of internal differentiation among its member states, and the migration crisis has shown that the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEs) in particular are slowly but certainly transforming themselves from predominantly passive policy-takers towards becoming more active players in the process of shaping the EU's governance agenda. This edited volume offers the first comprehensive and critical insight into how the CEEs position themselves in the EU's changing internal and external environment, their stance towards the European integration process under current crisis conditions, and what political and economic strategies they prioritize.

What do Michael Milken and Martha Stewart have in common? (Answer: Both became public scapegoats for an outrageous era of greed and excess.) What was the most outrageous party thrown by a financial baron of the twentieth century? (Answer: Tough call, but either Michael Milken's Predators Ball in 1985, or Dennis Kozlowski's Sardinian birthday bash in 2001, with its vodka-spouting sculpture.) Which U.S. war hero president became party to, and victim of, an unabashed con man known as the Napoleon of Wall Street? (Answer: Ulysses S. Grant, but it's a long story.)

These questions and more are discussed in Scott MacDonald and Jane Hughes' Separating Fools from Their Money. The authors trace the history of financial scandals from the early days of the young republic through the Enron/WorldCom debacle of modern times. A host of colorful characters inhabit the pages of this history, revealing human nature in all of its dubious shades of gray. At the same time, the book exposes themes common to all financial scandals, which remain astonishingly unchanged over more than two centuries--greed, hubris, media connections, self-interested politicians, and booms-gone-bust, to name a few.

Informative and entertaining, Separating Fools should engage the interest of investors and casual business readers, as well as economists interested in supplemental reading for their students.

A new introduction focuses on trends since publication of the original, with a postscript on the financial panic of 2008.

Nearly ten years after the Asian Financial Crisis, financial turmoil has reappeared a this time it is ravaging the world's wealthiest countries and dragging the global economy along for the ride. It forces one to reflect on the last major financial crisis to afflict the global economy, and to consider whether there are any similarities, and whether there are any lessons from that crisis that we can apply to the current one.

Written by a distinguished group of individuals from government, the private sector, international organizations, and academia, this book provides an overview of developments in the main affected countries during the Asian Financial Crisis, as well as the lessons learned and corrective measures taken at the country, regional, and international levels. Importantly, attention is also paid to the areas where substantial improvements are needed. The current crisis heightens the relevance of these lessons.

Lessons from the Asian Financial Crisis will be invaluable to those studying international relations, international finance, international economics and East Asian studies.

The adoption and management of the common currency has led the Eurozone to a critical point. This book analyzes in an interdisciplinary way the fundamental causes of distress, making sure to relate economic issues to the social and political aspects of the problem. The book explores the reasons why the Eurozone has fallen into a policy trap, as well as what Europe did and should do to exit the crisis, and why this is proving to be so difficult. The book also considers what role the United States has played, and could play to help foster a solution for the Eurozone. The main topics explored are the complex nature of the crisis, the short circuit between policies and the given institutional architecture, the controversial role of Germany, and the importance of an active role of the US. The book brings together a transatlantic group of scholars in order to offer an interdisciplinary analysis of the deep causes of the Eurozone distress. The authors recognize that the Eurozone countries have contrasting situations and interests and face different problems with complex consequences for the vexed question of national sovereignty within the EU; and pay attention to the social and political consequences of the economic and financial distress and of the perceived strain of the common currency.

This comprehensive volume explores debt dynamics and the intensification of debt crises across the globe, bringing together several recent but underexplored debt crises from different regional and socioeconomic contexts. Using detailed case studies, the authors recast the perils of debt-based growth in the context of regional/global imbalances; not to advocate 'one-size-fits-all' reforms, but to point to the need for accommodating diversity. They examine how current economic developments put developing and developed countries under new strain. They also interrogate the opportunities and challenges generated for developing countries by the new development finance landscape and newly (re)emerged geopolitical tensions. The book also explores the inability of existing dominant structures and thinking to effectively manage the multiple facets of the ongoing global debt crisis, pointing to responses that exacerbate rather than address unsustainable debt dynamics. The authors illustrate the adverse effects of ad hoc crisis management mechanisms which are not fit for purpose, and indicate the negative consequences that existing policies may have for democracy. They then put forward a framework for alternative thinking as well as concrete ideas on what needs to be done, in response. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and professionals in the field of global debt studies. It was originally published as a special issue of the online journal Third World Thematics.

With the financial crisis continuing after five years, people are questioning why economics failed either to send an adequate early warning ahead of the crisis or to resolve it quickly. The gap between important real-world problems and the workhorse mathematical model-based economics being taught to students has become a chasm. Students continue to be taught as if not much has changed since the crisis, as there is no consensus about how to change the curriculum. Meanwhile, employer discontent with the knowledge and skills of their graduate economist recruits has been growing. This book examines what economists need to bring to their jobs, and the way in which education in universities could be improved to fit graduates better for the real world. It is based on an international conference in February 2012, sponsored by the UK Government Economic Service and the Bank of England, which brought employers and academics together. Three themes emerged: the narrow range of skills and knowledge demonstrated by graduates; the need for reform of the content of the courses they are taught; and the barriers to curriculum reform. While some issues remain unresolved, there was strong agreement on such key issues as the strengthening of economic history, the teaching of inductive as well as deductive reasoning, critical evaluation and communication skills, and a better alignment of lecturers' incentives with the needs of their students.

Throughout the history of economic thought, interest in business cycles and economic crises has sometimes been observed to rise during times of crises, recessions and depressions. However, the treatment of this topic in the literature has generally been merely anecdotal. This book presents a bibliometric and econometric analysis of the development of business cycle and crises theory and its connection to economic developments, particularly since the early 20th century. The book explores the connection between economic development and the literature, utilising systematic bibliometric and rigorous econometric methods and drawing its data from a wide range of sources. This volume provides quantitative answers to questions which have not previously been subject to a precise and comprehensive empirical analysis. This book will be of great interest to historians of economic thought for its novel treatment of a much-discussed topic, and its well-founded and transparent results.

Banks of all sorts are troubled institutions. The cost of public bail-outs associated with the subprime crisis in the United States alone may be as high as US$5 trillion. What is the problem with banks? Why do they seem to be at the centre of economic and financial turmoil down through the ages? In this provocative and timely book, Rethel and Sinclair seek answers to these questions, arguing that banks suffer from perennial problems, and that developments in the financial markets and government in recent decades have simply exacerbated these issues. The book examines banking activity in America, Asia and Europe, and how specific historical circumstances have transformed banks' behaviour and attitude to risk. While many see government as a constraint on banks, Sinclair and Rethel argue that what governments do in terms of regulation shapes banks and their motivations, as can be seen in the shortcomings of current reform proposals. Instead, more far-reaching, alternative ways of regulating and shaping banks are needed. A concise, essential overview of a pressing global issue.

The global economy has experienced four waves of rapid debt accumulation over the past fifty years. The first three debt waves ended with financial crises in many emerging and developing economies.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the role of foreign-owned banks for credit growth, financial stability and economic growth in the post-communist European countries. Using data covering 20 countries over the period from 1995 to 2015, the authors analyse the evolution of banking sectors in CESEE after the transformation in the historical context. This helps draw a new picture of the role of financial development and EU accession in that region, being also a lesson for other countries or regions in transition. Additionally, as the Global Financial Crisis has left a stigma in banking sectors, the book shows its impact on the post-communist banking sectors. As the foreign banks dominate the banking sectors in CESEE countries (the stake of foreign-owned banks is below 50% of assets in only five out of 20 countries), their strategies materially impact the development of CESEE banking sectors, which warrants our scientific exploration. Arriving at a clear concluding point of view on the role of foreign-owned banks and providing insights for future policy of CESEEs towards foreign presence in their banking sectors, this book should be of interest to academics, students, and policymakers.

The 21st century marks a watershed in the history of the human economic condition. Income and wealth inequalities are now greater than ever before - and their role in the global financial crisis is one of the burning issues of today. Commodity looks at the great financial crisis from an entirely original perspective - that of the global commodity system as a newly operational totality. In the 19th century, the commodity system as defined by Karl Marx was limited to a few regions and embraced only the labour and capital capacities and their outputs. By the end of the 20th century, it encompassed the entire planet and embraced government capacity as well as private capacities, financial securities and material goods and services. This book shows how the financial crisis and its causes can only properly be understood as a result of this vast, unprecedented extension of the commodity system - a system which benefits the rich. The author makes the watertight case that it is only through the creation of a global tax authority - to coordinate national tax regimes and to implement a tax on global wealth - that we can avoid another crisis and create a fairer and more equitable world. Addressing a broad range of themes, Commodity offers a new perspective which will be of interest to political economists as well as researchers specialising in other related fields of social enquiry. Written in a clear and engaging way, the book's concise nature also makes it accessible for the non-specialist reader, and it will especially appeal to all those who want a more just society.

Killing Bugs for Business and Beauty examines the beginning of Canada's aerial war against forest insects and how a tiny handful of officials came to lead the world with a made-in-Canada solution to the problem. Shedding light on a largely forgotten chapter in Canadian environmental history, Mark Kuhlberg explores the theme of nature and its agency. The book highlights the shared impulses that often drove both the harvesters and the preservers of trees, and the acute dangers inherent in allowing emotional appeals instead of logic to drive environmental policy-making. It addresses both inter-governmental and intra-governmental relations, as well as pressure politics and lobbying. Including fascinating tales from Cape Breton Island, Muskoka, and Stanley Park, Killing Bugs for Business and Beauty clearly demonstrates how class, region, and commercial interests intersected to determine the location and timing of aerial bombings. At the core of this book about killing bugs is a story, infused with innovation and heroism, of the various conflicts that complicate how we worship wilderness.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a Rorschach test for society: everyone sees something different in it, and the range of political and economic responses to the crisis can leave us feeling overwhelmed. This book cuts through the confusion, dissecting the new post-coronavirus capitalism into several policy areas and spheres of action to inform academic, policy and public discourse. Covering all the major aspects of contemporary capitalism that have been affected by the pandemic, Andreas Noelke deftly analyses the impacts of the crisis on our socio-economic and political systems. Signposting a new era for global capitalism, he offers alternatives for future economic development in the wake of COVID-19.

We are living in a time of crisis which has cascaded through society. Financial crisis has led to an economic crisis of recession and unemployment; an ensuing fiscal crisis over government deficits and austerity has led to a political crisis which threatens to become a democratic crisis. Borne unevenly, the effects of the crisis are exacerbating class and gender inequalities. Rival interpretations a focus on austerity and reduction in welfare spending versus a focus on financial crisis and democratic regulation of finance are used to justify radically diverse policies for the distribution of resources and strategies for economic growth, and contested gender relations lie at the heart of these debates. The future consequences of the crisis depend upon whether there is a deepening of democratic institutions, including in the European Union. Sylvia Walby offers an alternative framework within which to theorize crisis, drawing on complexity science and situating this within the wider field of study of risk, disaster and catastrophe. In doing so, she offers a critique and revision of the social science needed to understand the crisis.

Housing markets were at the centre of the recent global financial turmoil. In this study, a multidisciplinary group of leading housing analysts from the USA, Europe, Asia and Australasia explore the impact of the crisis within and between countries.

Predatory lending of subprime mortgages targeting the most economically vulnerable minority communities helped trigger the current global financial crisis. This special issue of the journal American Quarterly explores the ways in which "subprime" becomes a racial signifier in the current debate about the causes and fixes for a capitalism itself in crisis. It signifies both the accumulated dispossession of racial exclusion in the twenty-first century gilded age in the United States and Global North more broadly, as well as the imperial ambitions of three decades of U.S.-led neoliberal rule over the Global South. Essays are divided into sections: debt, discipline, and empire; the pathologies of debt; and security, space, and resistance in the post-racial urban setting. Focusing on race and empire, that is, on racial and global subjugation, the contributors expose the ethical-political underpinnings of the current global financial crisis. Contributors include: Radhika Balakrishnan Jordan T. Camp Paula Chakravartty Ofelia Ortiz Cuevas Sophie Ellen Fung Daniel J. Hammel James Heintz Bosco Ho Zachary Liebowitz Tayyab Mahmud John D. Marquez Pierson Nettling C. S. Ponder Sarita Echavez See Shawn Shimpach Denise Ferreira da Silva Catherine R. Squires Michael J. Watts Elvin Wyly

This book presents the findings of new empirical research regarding shifts in public discourses and attitudes in Greek society as a result of the crisis. These findings have shown different shades of Euroscepticism and anti-German sentiments, but they have also revealed a normative conflict within Greek society itself. The book shows how economic crises and strict policy conditionality, causing or deepening economic recession in the countries receiving it, has the potential to set in motion a fragmentation process, which transcends standard material stratification and relates to broader political and even cultural rifts among the population. With this, the book serves as a case study of the impact of wider pressures and shifts weighing upon the European Union (EU) and the way European societies perceive the integration process. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of EU politics, Greek and Southern European studies and more broadly to cultural and comparative politics and political economy and European politics.

This title was first published in 2003. The events of 11 September 2001 defy modern economic theory when addressed in aviation terms. Economic theory would suggest that, once the impact of such events are a thing of the past, and economies are restored to their status quo ante, a rise in the gross domestic product of States to earlier levels would almost inevitably result in increased consumption. This in turn would mean that the demand for air travel would rise to earlier proportions and consumption in terms of air transport services would be restored to normalcy. However, the September attacks on United States' property introduced a unique characteristic through the fear factor that directly impacts the future development of air transport. As a result, the grim task of restoration of passenger confidence stands in the way of economic revival of the air transport industry. Aviation was always in crisis. The air transport industry, even prior to 11 September 2001, although seemingly a glamorous, exciting and prosperous business, never enjoyed sustained periods of profitability. Even among the large carriers, a short bout of profitability would inevitably be followed by a period of downturn in real income. It is simply that this fluctuation in fortune is an ineluctable characteristic of air transport, whose fortunes are dictated by rigid regulation, competition and technological change. If a sustained analysis were to be made of air transport, plain economic theory would no longer be the exclusive discipline for consideration. Rather, all relevant factors have to be taken in context and emerging issues should be analyzed as possible threats to the economic well being of the air transport industry. This book addresses issues in a post-September 2001 context but also analyses issues past and present, with the intent of looking at the future. Four major areas are taken into consideration which were in crisis but are truly impacted by the events of September 2001. These areas relate to crises in the commercial, security, insurance and environmental protection fields. Of these the first and fourth areas are inextricably intertwined, as aircraft noise regulations in various States have a direct impact on aircraft financing, which in turn is linked to demand for air services. A drop in demand for air services would essentially mean that the demand for lease or purchase of new aircraft would drop. When this occurs, air transport enterprises would be more inclined to cut costs and therefore concentrate on using the aircraft already at hand, upgrading them to conform to the The purpose of this book is to view the overall picture of an aviation industry - comprising air transport and other aviation related industries - in crisis, through issues that continue to impact the economic viability of air transport, particularly as a result of the events of 11 September 2001.

'A compelling guide for leaders grappling with the pandemic' Financial Times 'A remarkable book telling business leaders what to do when disaster strikes' The Times AN INSPIRING STORY OF RESILIENT LEADERSHIP IN THE TOUGHEST OF TIMES Louai Al Roumani was head of finance and planning at one of the largest banks in Syria, when the war broke out in 2011. In Lessons from a Warzone, Al Roumani shares his very personal account of coping with the day-to-day realities of leading an organization in dangerous and hostile conditions. His story shows how inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of places - from the timeless wisdom of merchants in ancient souks to the changing patterns of military checkpoints. During that time, not only did the bank remain robust when others faltered - it thrived and became the undisputed leading bank as people's trust in its capability to safeguard their life-long savings strengthened. In this book, Al Roumani distils the knowledge and skills he and his colleagues developed while steering the bank through four impossible years into ten lessons applicable to any leader facing a crisis today. His valuable, and often counterintuitive, advice - ranging from resisting over-planning to hacking your own IT department to cutting costs (but not morale) - will help anyone understand how to be resilient even in the most challenging of times.

The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a simple financial phenomenon: it was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge. Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers. The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a pinata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack at it. The Germans wanted to be even more German; the Irish wanted to stop being Irish. Michael Lewis's investigation of bubbles beyond our shores is so brilliantly, sadly hilarious that it leads the American reader to a comfortable complacency: oh, those foolish foreigners. But when he turns a merciless eye on California and Washington, DC, we see that the narrative is a trap baited with humor, and we understand the reckoning that awaits the greatest and greediest of debtor nations.