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A leading economic historian presents a new history of financial crises, showing how some led to greater globalization while others kept nations apart   The eminent economic historian Harold James presents a new perspective on financial crises, dividing them into “good� crises, which ultimately expand markets and globalization, and “bad� crises, which result in a smaller, less prosperous world. Examining seven turning points in financial history—from the depression of the 1840s through the Great Depression of the 1930s to the Covid-19 crisis—James shows how crashes prompted by a lack of supply, like the oil shortages of the 1970s, lead to greater globalization as markets expand and producers innovate to increase supply. By contrast, crises triggered by a lack of demand—such as the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2008—result in less globalization as markets contract, austerity measures are imposed, and skepticism of government grows.   By considering not only the times but also the observers who shaped our understanding of each crisis—from Karl Marx to John Maynard Keynes to Larry Summers—James shows how the uneven course of globalization has led to new economic thinking, and how understanding this history can help us better prepare for the future.

With contributions from world-renowned figures such as Niall Ferguson and Adair Turner, this volume investigates how financial institutions and markets have undergone or reacted to past pressures, and the regulatory responses that emerged as a result.

Reinsurance is an invisible service industry which enables insurance companies to insure more risks and to make better use of their resources. Until recently, reinsurers were only known to a small minority outside the insurance community. Major disasters, especially those caused by natural catastrophes, have increasingly brought the industry into the spotlight. Yet what is perceived today by a wider public still only represents a fraction of the industry, and the mechanisms of reinsurance to deal with global risk exposure are virtually unknown. The Value of Risk provides an overview of how today's reinsurance industry developed. It investigates for the first time the role of reinsurers in a changing risk, economic, and market environment. Harold James explains the fundamental principles of insuring and outlines the evolution of the industry in his introductory essay. In Part I, Peter Borscheid describes in detail the global spread of modern insurance, which emerged in the late eighteenth century amidst ideas of rationalism which attempted to quantify risk in monetary terms, the setbacks it encountered, and how the market environment changed over time. Professional reinsurance emerged with the rise in insured risks in the industrialising mid-nineteenth century. By the time the San Francisco Earthquake happened in 1906 the reinsurance industry had become well established and showed a remarkable ability to deal collectively with the catastrophe. David Gugerli describes in Part II how the industry as a whole dealt with such challenges but also the numerous exposures to a changing risk landscape. Against this background, in Part III Tobias Straumann examines the history of the Swiss Reinsurance Company, founded in 1863, providing a fascinating example of how professional risk taking was developed over the last 150 years.

First Published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book examines the role of Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest commercial bank, during the Nazi dictatorship, and asks how the bank changed and accommodated to a transition from democracy and a market economy to dictatorship and a planned economy. Set against the background of the world depression and the German banking crisis of 1931, the book looks at the restructuring of German banking and offers new material on the bank's expansion in central and eastern Europe. As well as summarizing recent research on the bank's controversial role in gold transactions and the financing of the construction of Auschwitz, the book also examines the role played by particular personalities in the development of the bank, such as Emil Georg von Strauss and Hermann Abs.

With present concerns over the regulation of the banking industry continuing to make headlines, an examination of the historiography of financial crises is timely. With contributions from world-renowned figures such as Niall Ferguson, Adair Turner and William R White, this volume investigates how financial institutions and markets have undergone or reacted to past pressures, the role of financial innovations in this process and the regulatory responses that emerged as a result.

The essays in this volume consider the involvement of business corporations and of individual businessmen in the politics of the 1930s and 1940s: in the move away from the market and also from democracy, towards state control and authoritarianism, including the massive intervention of the state in property rights. How far did businesses attempt to guide this intervention for their own purposes, and to what extent did they succeed? This debate deals, centrally, with the role of German business, of banks, of industrial corporations, and of small tradesmen in the Nazi regime. An older discussion of how they may have facilitated the Nazi takeover has been supplemented here by an investigation into how they made the regime's policies possible, and the extent to which the profit motive drove them to participate - with sometimes more, sometimes less enthusiasm - in the politics of inhumanity. Such discussion has been given further impetus by legal action, initially in the United States, in the form of class action suits on behalf of the victims of Nazism. What do such legal and political debates mean for business history? What are the current responsibilities of business facing the consequences of historical action? And what lessons should be learned concerning the ethics of business behaviour? The contributions to this volume were originally presented as papers at a conference organised by the Society for European Business History in Paris in November 1998.

The great rapidity of events in 1989-90, the collapse of Communism in eastern Europe, together with German reunification, took both participants and observers by surprise. "When the Wall Came Down" provides a wide-ranging compendium of responses in Germany and other countries - USA, Britain, USSR, France, Czechoslovakia, Israel, Poland, Italy and Japan. Following the editors' introduction which raises the issues implicit in the unification process, the essays examine the various components of the debate: modern Germany's relationship with its past, the role of German intellectuals in public life, the implications of German unity for the process of increased European political and economic integration, prospects for peace and stability in Central Europe, and the future of the nation-state. Present a diverse range of views and countries, "When the Wall Came Down" provides an extensive analysis of the German Question at this crucial time. Contributors include : Henry Kissinger, Vaclav Havel, Ralf Dahrendorf, Timothy Garton Ash, Conor Cruise O'Brien, Gunter Grass, Jurgen Habermas, Stefan Heym, Christa Wolf, and Joachim Fest.

Although international finance and banking has been the subject of much research and writing, the economic impact of banks on industrial structures and the relations between banking and industry in the twentieth century have remained a relatively unexplored area. This 1991 volume examines and interprets the economic effect of the financing of industry by banks and of the banks' credit intermediation in industrialised economies. Particular attention is given to the interplay of economics and politics, to the connections between bankers and industrialists, and to the significance of interlocking directorships. A special section is devoted to a hitherto wholly neglected problem in economic history: the vital influence of universal banking in small but highly industrialised countries in central Europe and Scandinavia.

Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest financial institution, played an important role in the expropriation of Jewish-owned enterprises during the Nazi dictatorship, both in the existing territories of Germany, and in the areas seized by the German army during World War II, particularly Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Drawing on new and previously unavailable materials, including branch records, and many from the Bank's own archives, Harold James examines policies that led to the eventual Genocide of European Jews. How much did the realization of the Nazi ideology depend on the acquiescence, the complicity, and the cupidity of individuals and economic institutions? Contradicting the traditional view that businesses were motivated by profit to cooperate with the Nazi regime, James closely examines the behavior of the bank and its individuals to suggest other motivations. James' unparalleled access and unusual perspective distinguishes this work as the only book to examine one company's involvement in the economic persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Harold James is Professor of History at Princeton University. He is a member of the Independent Commission of Experts investigating the political and economic links of Switzerland with Nazi Germany, and of commissions to examine the roles of Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank. He is the author of several books on Germany economy and society, including Germany: The German Slump (Oxford University Press, 1986), A Germany Identity 1770-1990 (Routledge, 1993), and International Monetary Cooperation Since 1945 (Oxford University Press, 1996). He co-edited several books, including The Role of Banks in the Interwar Economy (Cambridge, 1991). James was also co-author of an earlier history of the commercial bank Deutsche Bank (Deutsche Bank 1870-1995, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1995) which won the Financial Times Global Business Book Award in 1996. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

The essays in this volume consider the involvement of business corporations and of individual businessmen in the politics of the 1930s and 1940s: in the move away from the market and also from democracy, towards state control and authoritarianism, including the massive intervention of the state in property rights. How far did businesses attempt to guide this intervention for their own purposes, and to what extent did they succeed? This debate deals, centrally, with the role of German business, of banks, of industrial corporations, and of small tradesmen in the Nazi regime. An older discussion of how they may have facilitated the Nazi takeover has been supplemented here by an investigation into how they made the regime's policies possible, and the extent to which the profit motive drove them to participate - with sometimes more, sometimes less enthusiasm - in the politics of inhumanity. Such discussion has been given further impetus by legal action, initially in the United States, in the form of class action suits on behalf of the victims of Nazism. What do such legal and political debates mean for business history? What are the current responsibilities of business facing the consequences of historical action? And what lessons should be learned concerning the ethics of business behaviour? The contributions to this volume were originally presented as papers at a conference organised by the Society for European Business History in Paris in November 1998.

Europe Contested analyses the failures and achievements of an astonishing era of economic advance and political chaos, from the First World War up to the present day. Beginning with the Great War, the book goes on to examine connections between the self-destruction of liberal democracy, market economics, and the international political and security framework in the interwar period. It then considers the mass politics that surrounded the glorification of new-style leaders Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler before moving on to explore the ways in which the interwar legacy was superseded post-1945. James examines the deceptive appearance of stability brought by a new convergence in European politics that focused around the market and the principle of liberal democracy, and demonstrates how the impact of globalization and openness to migration and to destabilizing financial capital flows has eroded traditional politics and ended the stable left-right polarization at the core of the postwar order. This new edition has been thoroughly updated throughout, demonstrating also how an era of crisis is challenging Europe and its values. Supported by boxed case studies, illustrations, chronologies and an annotated bibliography, and focusing on Europe as a whole, it is the perfect introduction for students of Modern European History.

Making a Modern Central Bank examines a revolution in monetary and economic policy. This authoritative guide explores how the Bank of England shifted its traditional mechanisms to accommodate a newly internationalized financial and economic system. The Bank's transformation into a modern inflation-targeting independent central bank allowed it to focus on a precisely defined task of monetary management, ensuring price stability. The reframing of the task of central banks, however, left them increasingly vulnerable to financial crisis. James vividly outlines and discusses significant historical developments in UK monetary policy, and his knowledge of modern European history adds rich context to archival research on the Bank of England's internal documents. A worthy continuation of the previous official histories of the Bank of England, this book also reckons with contemporary issues, shedding light on the origins of growing backlash against globalization and the European Union.

Making a Modern Central Bank examines a revolution in monetary and economic policy. This authoritative guide explores how the Bank of England shifted its traditional mechanisms to accommodate a newly internationalized financial and economic system. The Bank's transformation into a modern inflation-targeting independent central bank allowed it to focus on a precisely defined task of monetary management, ensuring price stability. The reframing of the task of central banks, however, left them increasingly vulnerable to financial crisis. James vividly outlines and discusses significant historical developments in UK monetary policy, and his knowledge of modern European history adds rich context to archival research on the Bank of England's internal documents. A worthy continuation of the previous official histories of the Bank of England, this book also reckons with contemporary issues, shedding light on the origins of growing backlash against globalization and the European Union.

The essays, written by leading experts, examine the history of the international financial system in terms of the debate about globalization and its limits. In the nineteenth century, international markets existed without international institutions. A response to the problems of capital flows came in the form of attempts to regulate national capital markets (for instance through the establishment of central banks). In the inter-war years, there were (largely unsuccessful) attempts at designing a genuine international trade and monetary system; and at the same time (coincidentally) the system collapsed. In the post-1945 era, the intended design effort was infinitely more successful. The development of large international capital markets since the 1960s, however, increasingly frustrated attempts at international control. The emphasis has shifted in consequence to debates about increasing the transparency and effectiveness of markets; but these are exactly the issues that already dominated the nineteenth-century discussions.

How philosophical differences between Eurozone nations led to the Euro crisis-and where to go from here Why is Europe's great monetary endeavor, the Euro, in trouble? A string of economic difficulties in Eurozone nations has left observers wondering whether the currency union can survive. In this book, Markus Brunnermeier, Harold James, and Jean-Pierre Landau argue that the core problem with the Euro lies in the philosophical differences between the founding countries of the Eurozone, particularly Germany and France. But the authors also show how these seemingly incompatible differences can be reconciled to ensure Europe's survival. Weaving together economic analysis and historical reflection, The Euro and the Battle of Ideas provides a forensic investigation and a road map for Europe's future.

Europe Contested analyses the failures and achievements of an astonishing era of economic advance and political chaos, from the First World War up to the present day. Beginning with the Great War, the book goes on to examine connections between the self-destruction of liberal democracy, market economics, and the international political and security framework in the interwar period. It then considers the mass politics that surrounded the glorification of new-style leaders Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler before moving on to explore the ways in which the interwar legacy was superseded post-1945. James examines the deceptive appearance of stability brought by a new convergence in European politics that focused around the market and the principle of liberal democracy, and demonstrates how the impact of globalization and openness to migration and to destabilizing financial capital flows has eroded traditional politics and ended the stable left-right polarization at the core of the postwar order. This new edition has been thoroughly updated throughout, demonstrating also how an era of crisis is challenging Europe and its values. Supported by boxed case studies, illustrations, chronologies and an annotated bibliography, and focusing on Europe as a whole, it is the perfect introduction for students of Modern European History.

Examines the role of Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest commercial bank, during the Nazi dictatorship, and asks how the bank changed and accommodated to a transition from democracy and a market economy to dictatorship and a planned economy. Set against the background of the world depression and the German banking crisis of 1931, the book looks at the restructuring of German banking and offers material on the bank's expansion in central and eastern Europe. As well as summarizing research on the bank's controversial role in gold transactions and the financing of the construction of Auschwitz, the book also examines the role played by particular personalities in the development of the bank, such as Emil Georg von Strauss and Hermann Abs.

Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest financial institution, played an important role in the expropriation of Jewish-owned enterprises during the Nazi dictatorship, both in the existing territories of Germany, and in the areas seized by the German army during World War II, particularly Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Drawing on new and previously unavailable materials, including branch records, and many from the Bank's own archives, Harold James examines policies that led to the eventual Genocide of European Jews. How much did the realization of the Nazi ideology depend on the acquiescence, the complicity, and the cupidity of individuals and economic institutions? Contradicting the traditional view that businesses were motivated by profit to cooperate with the Nazi regime, James closely examines the behavior of the bank and its individuals to suggest other motivations. James' unparalleled access and unusual perspective distinguishes this work as the only book to examine one company's involvement in the economic persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Harold James is Professor of History at Princeton University. He is a member of the Independent Commission of Experts investigating the political and economic links of Switzerland with Nazi Germany, and of commissions to examine the roles of Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank. He is the author of several books on Germany economy and society, including Germany: The German Slump (Oxford University Press, 1986), A Germany Identity 1770-1990 (Routledge, 1993), and International Monetary Cooperation Since 1945 (Oxford University Press, 1996). He co-edited several books, including The Role of Banks in the Interwar Economy (Cambridge, 1991). Jameswas also co-author of an earlier history of the commercial bank Deutsche Bank (Deutsche Bank 1870-1995, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1995) which won the Financial Times Global Business Book Award in 1996. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Although international finance and banking has been the subject of research and writing, the economic impact of banks on industrial structures and the relations between banking and industry in the twentieth century have remained relatively unexplored areas. This volume examines and interprets the economic effect of the financing of industry by banks and of the banks' credit intermediation in industrialized economies. Particular attention is given to the interplay of economics and politics, to the connections between bankers and industrialists, and to the significance of interlocking directorships. A special section is devoted to a hitherto wholly neglected problem in economic history: the vital influence of universal banking in small but highly industrialized countries in central Europe and Scandinavia.

Why is Europe's great monetary endeavor, the Euro, in trouble? A string of economic difficulties in Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and other Eurozone nations has left observers wondering whether the currency union can survive. In this book, Markus Brunnermeier, Harold James, and Jean-Pierre Landau argue that the core problem with the Euro lies in the philosophical differences between the founding countries of the Eurozone, particularly Germany and France. But the authors also show how these seemingly incompatible differences can be reconciled to ensure Europe's survival. As the authors demonstrate, Germany, a federal state with strong regional governments, saw the Maastricht Treaty, the framework for the Euro, as a set of rules. France, on the other hand, with a more centralized system of government, saw the framework as flexible, to be overseen by governments. The authors discuss how the troubles faced by the Euro have led its member states to focus on national, as opposed to collective, responses, a reaction explained by the resurgence of the battle of economic ideas: rules vs. discretion, liability vs. solidarity, solvency vs. liquidity, austerity vs. stimulus. Weaving together economic analysis and historical reflection, The Euro and the Battle of Ideas provides a forensic investigation and a road map for Europe's future.