Chronicles the damage Thomas Friedman's flat wrong, "Flat Earth" ideas have caused to the American economy As Martin Sieff convincingly argues, Thomas Friedman's prescriptions have played a major role in causing America's economic decline, yet many executives and politicians, including President Obama, still look to him as their guru. Sieff exposes Friedman fallacies on the nature of globalization, the information technology revolution, political paralysis in Washington, and energy consumption. He documents how China is investing far more in locking up the world's oil and gas reserves than in developing the ineffective green technologies Friedman claims they love. He exposes Friedman's most acclaimed ideas as retreads of naive fantasies widely believed and exposed as useless a century ago. Convincingly refutes Thomas Friedman's fantasies and many fallacies in his best-selling books, The World Is Flat and That Used to Be Us , and presents a radically different vision and road map for America's economy and its future Offers a practical trade and energy strategy to restore American prosperity and industrial strength in the twenty-first century Explains why America's economy will soon depend on producing low-carbon footprint natural gas, reviving its manufacturing sector, and protecting its industry from unfair foreign competition and artificially manipulated exchange rates Written by veteran journalist Martin Sieff, a regular contributor to FoxNews.com and Chief Global Analyst at The Globalist Research Center

The world economy is currently in the throes of a global economic crisis reminiscent of the great depressions of the 1930s and the 1870s. As back then, the crisis has exposed the major structural imbalances in financial and credit markets in addition to global trade forcing many governments, developed and developing, to impose debilitating austerity measures that are exacerbating the structural weaknesses that caused the crisis in the first place.

This volume offers historical insights into the origins of the contemporary crisis as well as detailed analyses of the financial and trade dimensions, an assessment of the technological and innovation context along with perspectives on the implications for unemployment and gender imbalances.

This book provides an in-depth account of the politics of the Eurozone crisis in Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus and Malta, mapping the positions expressed by the governments of Southern EU countries during the Eurozone crisis negotiations, including Greece's bailout deal, the so-called "Six Pack" and the "Fiscal Compact" and exploring the process of domestic preference formation. The book relies on original data resulting from fieldwork conducted in the context of the EU Commission- funded Horizon 2020 project "The Choice for Europe since Maastricht".

An informative primer on the new landscape of leading prime brokers

Before the recent financial crisis, both regulators and market participants disregarded the complex and dangerous nature of the relationship between prime brokers (the banks) and their clients (the funds). In "When Prime Brokers Fail, " J. S. Aikman examines the convoluted structure of this relationship, the main participants, and the impact of the near collapse of prime brokerages on the financial world.

Filled with in-depth insights and expert advice, "When Prime Brokers Fail" takes a close look at the unheeded risks of prime finance and lays out the steps required for managers to protect their funds and bankers to protect their brokerages.Examines the challenges, trends, and risks within the prime brokerage spaceDiscusses the structural adjustments firms will need to make to avoid similar disastersAnalyzes the complex relationship between hedge funds and their brokerages and the risks that multiply in extraordinary marketsCovers new ways to manage an inherently risky business and the regulations that may soon be introduced into this arena

Engaging and informative, this timely book details the intricacies and interdependencies of prime brokerages and the role that these operations play in our increasingly dynamic financial system.

This global handbook provides an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of shadow banking, or market-based finance as it has been recently coined. Engaging in financial intermediary services outside of normal regulatory parameters, the shadow banking sector was arguably a critical factor in causing the 2007-2009 financial crisis. This second volume explores three particular domains of shadow banking. The first domain deals with the macro-economic fundamentals of the respective shadow banking segments: Why do they exist, what problems do they solve and why are some of their embedded risks so persistent? The second domain captures the global dimensions of shadow banking markets, reviewing the particularities and specifics of various shadow banking systems around the world. Volume II concludes with an extensive overview of how the sector has changed since the financial crisis, focusing on regulatory arbitrage, contract imperfection and governance. Closing on unresolved issues and open-ended questions that will no doubt remain prominent in the shadow banking sector for years to come, this handbook is a must-read for professionals and policy-makers within the banking sector, as well as those researching economics and finance.

In 2007-8 the world economy started its heady journey to recession. The Queen herself asked "why didn't we see this coming," but it's a question that remains unanswered. A decade later and it is still not clear exactly who is responsible for the crisis. The world has experienced the long-term impact of austerity policies on its welfare system and the political landscape is completely changed. This analysis of the media that reported on this crisis and where it came from is long overdue. The media were responsible for warning the public-a role they failed in. This book provides evidence that journalists, like bankers and regulators, need to be held accountable. The Global Financial Crisis is a starting point, but it deserves a much wider context and explanation, one this book provides for the first time. Looking at three global and pivotal financial crises, this book assesses the degree to which financial and economics journalists have played a watchdog role for society. It takes a long glance back from the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-8 to look at the (as it shows, gradually narrowing) content we have been reading in mainstream publications, and speaks to journalists in three countries to gauge the reality of the situation from the perspective of the newsroom.

We have just experienced the worst financial crash the world has seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. While real economies in general did not crash as they did in the 1930s, the financial parts of the economy certainly did, or, at least, came very close to doing so. Hundreds of banks in the United States and Europe have been closed by their supervisory authorities, forcibly merged with stronger partners, nationalized or recapitalized with the tax payers' money. Banks and insurance companies had, by mid 2010, already written off some 2000 billion dollars in credit write-downs on loans and securities. In this book, Johan Lybeck draws on his experience as both an academic economist and a professional banker to present a detailed yet non-technical analysis of the crash. He describes how the crisis began in early 2007, explains why it happened and shows how it compares to earlier financial crises.

The global financial crisis and its aftermath saw boom-bust cycles in cross-border capital flows of astounding magnitude. Issues of capital account liberalization and the imposition of capital controls are back in the headlines, and on researchers' agendas. This comprehensive and timely research review covers many of the themes central to the issue of capital account liberalization, and provides a balanced assessment of the role that capital controls might play in the effective management of capital flows to reap their benefits.

How do economists reconcile their expertise with their failures to predict and manage the 2008 financial crisis? This book goes a long way toward an answer by using systems theory to reveal the complex interdependence of factors and forces behind the crisis. In her fully integrated view of the economy, how it works, and how the economic crisis burst, Karen Higgins combines human psychology, cultural values, and belief formation with descriptions of the ways banks and markets succeed and fail. In each chapter she introduces themes from financial crisis literature and brings a systems-theory treatment of them. Her methodology and visual presentations both develop the tools of systems theory and apply these tools to the financial crisis. Not just another volume about the crisis, this book challenges the status quo through its unique multidisciplinary approach.
Presents a broad global view of international economic health and international corporate healthDescribes how policies, regulations, and trends dating to the 1950s influenced the crisisAssumes readers possess a general familiarity of economics and finance

This book critically analyses the crisis of the euro currency from 2008 to the present. It argues that an understanding of this crisis requires an understanding of financial and economic crises in individual countries participating in the euro. It goes on to describe and explain the crises in four countries - Greece, Ireland, Spain and Italy - showing how they differ and together challenge the euro currency by requiring a varied policy response from Europe. Eurocritical is a guide for scholars, students and practitioners of finance and economics.

Translated by Ciaran Cronin.

The world is a state of turmoil. From the financial crisis to the chaos in the eurozone, from the Arab uprisings to protests in Athens, Barcelona, New York and elsewhere, many of the familiar frameworks are collapsing and we have to find new ways to orient ourselves in a world undergoing rapid change. Of course, it is necessary for political leaders to address local issues and react to people's specific demands, but without a cosmopolitan outlook, such a reaction is likely to be inadequate. Ulrich Beck's "Twenty-one Observations on a World in Turmoil" is a demonstration of cosmopolitan politics in practice. It is more than a mirror: it is a magnifying glass that brings into focus the processes that are transforming our world and highlights the great challenges we face today.'Global domestic politics', the concept introduced and developed by Beck, is much more than a political theory, a philosophical utopia (or dystopia), a governance programme or a mental state: it is the reality of our times. Beck turns the argument that 'global domestic politics' is an unrealistic ideology on its head, arguing that it is the proponents of the national who are the idealists. They view reality through the obsolete lenses of the nation-state and thus cannot see the profound global changes that are transforming our reality. Global domestic politics is therefore a perspective, a political reality and a normative idea. And it is the critical theory of our times since it challenges the most profound truths which we hold dear: the truths of the nation.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. The Global Financial Crisis is the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression, and although many have explored its causes, relatively few have focused on its consequences. Unlike earlier crises, no new paradigm seems yet to have come forward to challenge existing ways of thinking and neo-liberalism has emerged relatively unscathed. This crisis, characterized by a remarkable policy stability, has lacked a coherent and innovative intellectual response. This book, however, systematically explores the consequences of the crisis, focusing primarily on its impact on policy and politics. It asks how governments responded to the challenges that the crisis has posed, and the policy and political impact of the combination of both the Global Financial Crisis itself and these responses. It brings together leading academics to consider the divergent ways in which particular countries have responded to the crisis, including the US, the UK, China, Europe, and Scandinavia. The book also assesses attempts to develop global economic governance and to reform financial regulation, and looks critically at the role of credit rating agencies.

For most people, the Great Crash of 2008 has meant troubling times. Not so for those in the flourishing poverty industry. These mercenary entrepreneurs have taken advantage of an era of deregulation to devise high-priced products to sell to the credit-hungry working poor, including the instant tax refund and the payday loan. In the process they've created an industry larger than the casino business and have proved that pawnbrokers and check cashers, if they dream big enough, can grow very rich off those with thin wallets.

"Broke, USA" is Gary Rivlin's riveting report from the economic fringes. Timely, shocking, and powerful, it offers a much-needed look at why our country is in a financial mess and gives a voice to the millions of ordinary Americans left devastated in the wake of the economic collapse.

Given the huge impact of the 2008 financial crash and post-crash austerity on so many people's lives, there is a need for a concise, accessible guide to its causes and its longer-term significance. Written by an expert in political science and straddling finance, economics and political science, this entry-level summary demystifies global finance and puts the financial crisis in its historical context. It also outlines the policy responses of Western governments to the crash and the ensuing recession and turn to austerity. Supplemented by an appendix with an A-Z glossary of key terms, processes and institutions, the book concludes by asking if the crisis is really over and outlines possible future scenarios, making it an impressive overview for anyone with little or no previous knowledge of the subject.

The world economy is currently in the throes of a global economic crisis reminiscent of the great depressions of the 1930s and the 1870s. As back then, the crisis has exposed the major structural imbalances in financial and credit markets in addition to global trade forcing many governments, developed and developing, to impose debilitating austerity measures that are exacerbating the structural weaknesses that caused the crisis in the first place. This volume offers historical insights into the origins of the contemporary crisis as well as detailed analyses of the financial and trade dimensions, an assessment of the technological and innovation context along with perspectives on the implications for unemployment and gender imbalances.

In this book Wayne Hope analyzes the double relation between time and global capitalism. In order to do this, he cross-relates four epistemes of time - epochality, time reckoning, temporality and coevalness - with four materializations of time - hegemony, conflict, crisis and rupture. Using this framework allows Hope to argue that global capitalism is epochally distinctive, riven by time conflicts, prone to recurring crises, and vulnerable to collective opposition. These critical insights are not easily thematized in a mediated world of real-time reflexivity, detemporalized presentism, and denials of coevalness associated with structural exclusions of the poor. However, the worldwide repercussions of the 2008 financial collapse and the resulting confluence of occupation movements, riots, protests, strike activity, and anti-austerity activism raises the prospect of a rupture within and beyond global capitalism.

David Begg examines how four small open economies- Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland- have managed the stresses and strains of Europeanisation since the single market came into being, and as fault lines begin to appear within the European integration project. In particular, he drills down into the Irish Polity to see how its institutions have engaged with Europe and how decisions on critical issues like integration, EMU and Social Partnership were reached. He finds that both Ireland and Europe are at a critical juncture for different but interconnected reasons, and identifies the options that are available to them.

In the aftermath of the 2007-8 crisis, senior policymakers and the media have blamed excessive risk-taking undertaken by bank executives, in response to their compensation incentives, for the crisis. The inevitable follow-up to this was to introduce stronger financial regulation, in the hope that better and more ethical behaviour can be induced. Despite the honourable intentions of regulation, such as the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, it is clear that many big banks are still deemed too big to fail. This book argues that by restructuring executive incentive programmes to include only restricted stock and restricted stock options with very long vesting periods, and financing banks with considerably more equity, the potential of future financial crises can be minimized. It will be of great value to corporate executives, corporate board members, institutional investors and economic policymakers, as well as graduate and undergraduate students studying finance, economics and law.

Why do economic variables change? So what if they do? What happens next? How do economic processes and policy institutions really work? What can policy do?

The answers are found in How To Think And Reason In Macroeconomics, a popular university text with very positive feedback from students, lecturers and practitioners. It combines well-informed intuitive understanding with solid economic theory plus a concrete understanding of South African economic processes, institutions and data. In this way it prepares you to analyse macroeconomic events and policies in a globalised and development context.

Presents the empirical data of business cycles and the theories that economists have developed to explain and prevent them, and considers case studies of recessions and depressions in the United States and internationally. Despite more than two centuries of debate, a definitive explanation of the causes of economic cycles still does not exist. Economists, politicians, and policymakers have argued many well-known theories as to why these peaks and slumps occur, and cyclical recessions and depressions continue in spite of the enormous intellectual reserves working to prevent them. This timely analysis presents a comprehensive overview of global economics, assessing older theories alongside of new ways of thinking to reveal the empirical methods needed to evaluate, forecast, and prevent future crises. Educator and economist Todd Knoop provides explanations of influential macroeconomic theories that have shaped modern economics, such as Keynesian economics, Neoclassical economics, Austrian economics, and New Keynesian economics. In addition, he considers case studies of specific recessions and depressions, beginning with the Great Depression through the East Asian crisis and Great Recession in Japan and culminating with a detailed examination of the European debt crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis. The work concludes with a look at the insights gained from these fiscal events as well as the major questions that still remain unanswered as a result of these crises. Features four primary forecasting techniques and assesses the effectiveness of these methods in forecasting actual business cycles Examines the reasons behind the lessening frequency of recessions in postwar America Makes the subject of economic crises timely and relevant by addressing the recent global financial crisis and the European debt crisis Reveals how the collapse of the housing market led to a credit crunch and a global economic slowdown

Credit rating agencies have been criticized for their role in the financial crisis by understating credit risk. The US subprime mortgage crisis highlighted the systemic relevance of the rating agencies and the deficiencies in their activities; this led to an international consensus to regulate the rating business. Written by those involved in developing European Legislation, this book explains EU Regulation in the context of global initiatives undertaken by the G-20, the Financial Stability Board, and IOSCO to address failures within the rating industry. Through an in-depth analysis of the EU Regulation's requirements on governance, conflicts of interest, methodologies, and transparency, the book provides a clear explanation of how rating agencies operate and how the identified failures have been addressed. Moreover, it examines the supervisory and enforcement powers of ESMA, the EU authority in charge of the registration and oversight of rating agencies. This is complemented with an analysis of guidance from supervisors (ESMA and EBA), IOSCO's recommendations, and US legislation. The book discusses possible new regulatory developments in areas such as the agencies' business model, competition, civil liability, and ratings of sovereign debt, in light of the Euro debt sovereign crisis. It concludes with the authors' support for an enhanced regulatory and oversight coordination at international level and for the implementation of the necessary steps to reduce the existing over-reliance on ratings.

Incorporating a broad range of economic approaches, Understanding Financial Crises explores the merits of various arguments and theories which have been used to explain the causes of financial crises. The book explores eight of these different explanations: underconsumption, debt accumulation, financialization, income inequality, financial fragility, tendency of rate of profit to fall, human behavior, and global imbalances. The introduction provides a brief overview of each argument along with a comparison of their relative merits. Each chapter then introduces one of the arguments, explores a historical case, and focuses on the insights that can be gleaned into the global crisis in 2007-2008. The book draws on insights from various schools of thought including post-Keynesian economics, Marxist economics, behavioral economics, neoclassical economics, and more, to provide a pluralist overview of the causes of economic crises in general and the Great Recession in particular. This book marks a significant contribution to the literature on economic and financial crises, political economy and heterodox economics. It is well suited to academicians, practitioners, and financial analysts working within the relevant fields.

This book examines the macroeconomic and regulatory impact of domestic and international shocks on the South African economy resulting from the 2009 financial crisis. It also assesses the impact of the US economy's eventual recovery from the crisis and the prospect of higher US interest rates in future. Told in three parts, the book explores associations between economic growth, policy uncertainty and the key domestic and international transmission channels, and transmission effects, of global financial regulatory and domestic macro-economic uncertainties on subdued and volatile economic recovery, financial channels, lending rate margins, and credit growth. The book concludes by extending its focus to the role of US monetary policy, capital flows and rand/US dollar volatility on the South African economy.

This edited volume showcases how the European cooperative banks have continued to evolve amid a new competitive scenario that resulted from the Global Financial Crisis started in Europe in 2008. The cooperative banking paradigm has been put under an unprecedented pressure as a consequence of factors such as the exceptionally low interest rates set by the European Central Bank, low profitability generated by traditional banking services-which are the backbone of the cooperative banking business-and the entrance of fintech companies into the banking market. Furthermore, tightening regulation since the beginning of the crisis has produced an increased capital and liquidity burden which in some cases have forced cooperative banks to reduce lending to their members and customers, putting under question the traditional countercyclical role of cooperative banks in periods of crisis. For these reasons, it is of the utmost value to observe and analyse how cooperative banks have been reacting in the attempt to preserve their unique business model and, at the same time, to keep providing credit to the economy. A number of scholars active in the cooperative banking sector have been involved in this edited volume as contributors.

This book discusses contemporary banking and monetary policy issues from the perspective of the Austrian School of Economics. Based on the heritage of the Austrian school, leading scholars and practitioners offer a coherent diagnosis and analysis of the factors leading to Europe's current financial crisis. The first part of the book discusses Ludwig von Mises's and Friedrich August von Hayek's ideas on banking and monetary policy from both historical and economic standpoints. It includes contributions on Austrian monetary dynamics and micro-foundational business cycle theory, von Mises's concepts of liquidity and solvency of fractional-reserve banks, and liberalism of Austrian economics. The second part analyzes the measures taken by the European Central Bank (ECB) in light of the ideas of von Mises and Hayek. It includes contributions on non-neutrality of money, ECB monetary policy, and the future of the ECB. The third and final part presents discussions on monetary reforms, including contributions on Bitcoins, Cryptocurrencies and anti-deflationist Paranoia.