archive

The macroeconomic mess

The first chapter from Capital Ideas: The IMF and the Rise of Financial Liberalization by Jeffrey Chwieroth. A look at how the global rush to develop modern financial institutions — including stock markets — has had a huge downside. Who needs Wall Street? Society profits little from a dizzying casino. Ponzi Nation: Andy Kroll on how get-rich-quick crime came to define an era. Dan Jones looks at past episodes of runaway greed and the moral lessons learnt. From Economic Principals, three books about the CDS market have appeared recently, a triptych that reveals a great deal about the process of financial innovation (and more); and here’s a relatively light-hearted way to tackle the question of what caused the macroeconomic mess of 2008 and 2009. More on Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin. Simon Johnson reviews Henry Paulson's On The Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Finance System (and more). A review of Getting Off Track: How Government Actions and Interventions Caused, Prolonged, and Worsened the Financial Crisis by John Taylor and The Fundamental Principles of Financial Regulation. Heading off the next financial crisis: David Leonhardt on the case for more — and more nuanced — regulation. Seize power, shareholders: More regulation won't fix Wall Street, but a shareholder revolution will. A review of The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy by Richard Posner (and more and more). Austerity is not the only way to make up for massive government debt and lack of revenue following self‑induced disasters in private finance — there are fairer ways to balance the books. An excerpt from The End of Influence: What Happens When Other Countries Have the Money by Brad DeLong and Stephen Cohen (and more and more and more and more and more).