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Book Cover
Book
Author Posner, Richard A.

Title A failure of capitalism : the crisis of '08 and the descent into depression / Richard A. Posner
Published Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2009

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB  330.973 Pos/Foc  AVAILABLE
Description xix, 346 pages ; 19 cm
Contents The depression and its proximate causes -- The crisis in banking -- The underlying causes -- Why a depression was not anticipated -- The government responds -- A silver lining? -- What we are learning about capitalism and government -- The economics profession asleep at the switch -- Apportioning blame -- The way forward -- The future of conservatism
Summary "The financial and economic crisis that began in 2008 is the most alarming of our lifetime. How could it have happened, after all we've learned from the Great Depression? Why wasn't it anticipated? What can be done to reverse a slide into a full-blown depression? Why have the responses to date of the government and the economics profession been so indecisive? Richard Posner presents a concise and non-technical examination of this financial disaster and the stumbling efforts to cope with it. Among the facts and causes Posner identifies are heavy capital flows from abroad and the reckless lowering of interest rates by the Federal Reserve Board; the deregulation of the financial sector; the relation between executive compensation, short-term profit goals, and risky lending; the housing bubble fueled by low interest rates and aggressive mortgage marketing; the low savings rate of the American people; and the highly leveraged balance sheets of large financial institutions. Posner analyzes the two basic remedial approaches to the crisis, which correspond to the two theories of the cause of the Great Depression: the monetarist - that the Federal Reserve Board allowed the money supply to shrink, thus failing to prevent a disastrous deflation - and the Keynesian - that the depression was the product of a credit binge in the 1920s, a stock-market crash, and the ensuing downward spiral in economic activity. Posner concludes that the pendulum swung too far and that our financial markets need to be more heavily regulated."--Book jacket
Analysis Capitalism
Credit
Economic depression
Financial crises
Financial institution failures
Overseas item
US Federal Reserve
United States
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-336) and index
Subject Capitalism.
Depressions.
Economic history -- 21st century.
Financial crises -- United States.
SUBJECT United States -- Economic conditions -- 2001-2009. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2001004604
United States -- Economic policy -- 2001-2009. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2001008758
LC no. 2009004723
ISBN 9780674035140 (alk. paper)
Other Titles Crisis of '08 and the descent into depression