Too Big to Fail?: Recasting the Financial Safety Net
Steven L. Schwarcz
Duke University - School of Law
2010
THE PANIC OF 2008: CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR REFORM, p. 94, Lawrence E. Mitchell & Arthur E. Wilmarth, Jr., eds., Edward Elgar, 2010
Abstract:
Government safety nets in the United States and abroad focus, anachronistically, on problems of banks and other financial institutions, largely ignoring financial markets which have become major credit sources for consumers and companies. Besides failing to protect these markets, this narrow focus encourages morally hazardous behavior by large institutions, like AIG and Citigroup, that are "too big to fail." This paper examines how a safety net should be recast to protect financial markets and also explains why that safety net would mitigate moral hazard and help resolve the too-big-to-fail dilemma.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 24
Keywords: financial markets, subprime, financial crisis
Accepted Paper Series
Suggested Citation
Schwarcz, Steven L., Too Big to Fail?: Recasting the Financial Safety Net (2010). THE PANIC OF 2008: CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR REFORM, p. 94, Lawrence E. Mitchell & Arthur E. Wilmarth, Jr., eds., Edward Elgar, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1352563
