The financial crisis of 2007-08 and the Great Recession caused more widespread economic trauma than any event since the Great Depression. With a slow and uneven recovery, encouraging stability and growth is critical. Financial Restructuring to Sustain Recovery maintains that while each part of the financial services industry can play a useful role in revving up the U.S. economic engine to full capacity, the necessary reforms are sometimes subtle and often difficult to implement. Editors Martin Neil Baily, Richard Herring, and Yuta Seki and their coauthors break recovery down by three areas: Restructuring the housing finance market Reforming the bankruptcy process Reenergizing the market for initial public offerings Included are lessons drawn from Japan's experience in overcoming its long-lasting financial crisis after the collapse of its real estate market in the 1990s. Contributors: Franklin Allen (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA), James R. Barth (Auburn University College of Business; Milken Institute), Thomas Jackson (Simon School of Business, University of Rochester), Jay R. Ritter (Warrington College of Business, University of Florida, USA), David Skeel (University of Pennsylvania Law School, USA), and Glenn Yago (Milken Institute).

A clear understanding of what we know, don't know, and can't know should guide any reasonable approach to managing financial risk, yet the most widely used measure in finance today--Value at Risk, or VaR--reduces these risks to a single number, creating a false sense of security among risk managers, executives, and regulators. This book introduces a more realistic and holistic framework called "KuU"--the "K"nown, the "u"nknown, and the "U"nknowable--that enables one to conceptualize the different kinds of financial risks and design effective strategies for managing them. Bringing together contributions by leaders in finance and economics, this book pushes toward robustifying policies, portfolios, contracts, and organizations to a wide variety of "KuU" risks. Along the way, the strengths and "limitations" of "quantitative" risk management are revealed.

In addition to the editors, the contributors are Ashok Bardhan, Dan Borge, Charles N. Bralver, Riccardo Colacito, Robert H. Edelstein, Robert F. Engle, Charles A. E. Goodhart, Clive W. J. Granger, Paul R. Kleindorfer, Donald L. Kohn, Howard Kunreuther, Andrew Kuritzkes, Robert H. Litzenberger, Benoit B. Mandelbrot, David M. Modest, Alex Muermann, Mark V. Pauly, Til Schuermann, Kenneth E. Scott, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and Richard J. Zeckhauser.Introduces a new risk-management paradigm Features contributions by leaders in finance and economics Demonstrates how "killer risks" are often more economic than statistical, and crucially linked to incentives Shows how to invest and design policies amid financial uncertainty

In recent years, the major industrialized nations have developed cooperative procedures for supervising banks, harmonized their standards for bank capital requirements, and initiated cooperative understanding about securities market supervision. This book assesses what further coordination and harmonization in financial regulation will be required in an era of increased globalization. A volume of Brookings' Integrating National Economies Series

It has been four years since the financial crisis of 2008, and the global financial system still is experiencing malaise caused by high rates of unemployment; a lingering, unresolved supply of foreclosed properties; the deepening European debt crisis; and fear of a recurrence of the bank turmoil that brought about the Great Recession. All of these factors have led to stagnant economic growth worldwide.

In "Rocky Times," editors Yasuyuki Fuchita, Richard J. Herring, and Robert E. Litan bring together experts from academia and the banking sector to analyze the difficult issues surrounding troubled large financial institutions in an environment of economic uncertainty and growing public anger. Continuing the format of the previous Brookings- Nomura collaborations, Rocky Times focuses largely on developments within the United States and Japan but looks at those in other nations as well.

This volume examines two broad areas: the Japanese approach to regulating financial institutions and promoting financial stability and the U.S. approach in light of the Dodd-Frank Act. Specific chapters include "Managing Systemwide Financial Crises: Some Lessons from Japan since 1990," "The Bankruptcy of Bankruptcy," "The Case for Regulating the Shadow Banking System," "Why and How to Design a Contingent Convertible Debt Requirement," and "Governance Issues for Macroprudential Policy in Advanced Economies."

Contributors: Gavin Bingham (Systemic Policy Partnership, London), Charles W. Calomiris (Columbia Business School), Douglas J. Elliott (Brookings Institution), Kei Kodachi (Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research), Morgan Ricks (Vanderbilt Law School).

While the immediate dangers from the recent financial crisis have abated --much of the financial system has returned to profitability and the economy is growing, albeit slowly --the damage to the economy will linger for years. Among the many impacts is the problem that may be most acute in the United States: how state and local governments and private companies will honor their obligations under defined benefit (DB) pension plans. Institutional investors also confront new difficulties in the low-interest-rate environment that has prevailed since the onset of the crisis. East Asian economies, namely in Japan, Korea, and China, also face pension issues as their populations age.

In "Growing Old," experts from academia and the private sector consider the hard questions regarding the future of pension plans and institutional money management, both in the United States and in Asia. This volume is the latest collaboration between the Brookings Institution and the Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research on issues confronting the financial sector of common interest to audiences in the United States and Japan.

Contributors: Olivia S. Mitchell (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania), Akiko Nomura (Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research), Robert Novy-Marx (Simon Graduate School of Business, University of Rochester), Betsy Palmer (MFS Investment Management), Robert Pozen (Harvard Business School), Joshua Rauh (Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University), Natalie Shapiro (MFS Investment Management)

"As the global economy continues to weather the effects of the recession brought on by the financial crisis of 2007-08, perhaps no sector has been more affected and more under pressure to change than the industry that was the focus of that crisis: financial services. But as policymakers, financial experts, lobbyists, and others seek to rebuild this industry, certain questions loom large. For example, should the pay of financial institution executives be regulated to control risk taking? That possibility certainly has been raised in official circles, with spirited reactions from all corners. How will stepped-up regulation affect key parts of the financial services industry? And what lies ahead for some of the key actors in both the United States and Japan? In After the Crash, noted economists Yasuyuki Fuchita, Richard Herring, and Robert Litan bring together a distinguished group of experts from academia and the private sector to take a hard look at how the financial industry and some of its practices are likely to change in the years ahead. Whether or not you agree with their conclusions, the authors of this volume-the most recent collaboration between Brookings, the Wharton School, and the Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research-provide well-grounded insights that will be helpful to financial practitioners, analysts, and policymakers. "

There is little dispute that the mortgage meltdown of 2007, created by irresponsible lending and lax oversight, helped lead to the global financial crisis. Why were these securities backed by subprime debt so desirable to so many seemingly sophisticated investors? The answer lies in distorted incentives, opaque securitization structures and a willingness to believe that house prices would continue to rise indefinitely and the hope for super-normal returns. In "Prudent Lending Restored" experts from the United States, Europe, and Japan draw a timeline of key events along the road to our most recent recession. Providing an in-depth analysis of the causes of the subprime mortgage meltdown, they propose reforms, including a more simplified securitization process with emphasis on oversight to encourage more prudent lending. This timely volume --the collaboration between the Brookings Institution and the Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research --argues that securitization can and should have a brighter future, and they lay out ways that will make that possible.

Contributors: Jennifer E. Bethel (Babson College), Robert E. Eisenbeis (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta), Allen Ferrell (Havard Law School), G?nter Franke (Konstanz University, Germany), Jack Guttentag (University of Pennsylvania), Gang Hu (Babson College), Tetsuya Kamiyama (Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research, Tokyo), Kei Kodachi (NICMR), Jan P. Krahnen (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany), Joseph R. Mason (Louisiana State University), Igor Roitburg (Default Mitigation Management LLC), and Eiichi Sekine (NICMR).

Since the early 1970s exchange volatility has increased markedly. This increased volatility is a major concern not only for government policy makers but also corporations engaged in international activities, because their profitability may be sharply altered by unanticipated exchange rate movements. This situation has posed a challenge to academic researchers, but over the past decade considerable progress has been made in our ability to understand the causes of exchange rate fluctuations and their impact on economic foreign exchange risk and to assess investment opportunities generated by exchange rate fluctuations. This book is a collection of essays by academic experts from the fields of economics, finance, and accounting, and by several distinguished practitioners from international corporations and financial institutions. Together the essays present a broad, up-to-date survey of what we know about foreign exchange risk and how to cope with it.

The point of departure for this book is the fundamental assertion that managers of international enterprises must cope not only with the hazards that jeopardize the success of ordinary domestic transactions but also with additional perils that are uniquely international. Two of the most important of these are the risk of a breakdown in the rules and practices that govern international trade and investment flows, and country risk - the risk that a sovereign power will interfere with the repatriation of profits, interest payments, principal repayments, or the control of foreign assets. The issues addressed include the prospects for foreign exchange crises, trade wars, international banking crises, and oil shortages; the factors that generate economic, political, and social risk; organizational strategies for mitigating country risk; and the scope for insuring against international risks. The contributors include academic experts from the fields of economics and finance and distinguished practitioners from international corporations, financial institutions, and international agencies.