Verdict on the Crash: Causes and Policy Implications

Abstract:     
This monograph challenges the myth that the recent banking crisis was caused by insufficient statutory regulation of financial markets. Though it finds that statutory regulation failed, and that market participants took more risks than they should have done, it appears that statutory regulation made matters worse rather than better. Furthermore the fifteen experts who have contributed to this study find that government policy failed in other respects too. As with the boom and bust that led to the Great Depression, loose monetary policy on both sides of the Atlantic helped to promote an asset price bubble and credit boom which, at some stage, was bound to have serious consequences. Rejecting the failed approach of discretionary detailed regulation of the financial system, the authors instead propose specific and incisive regulatory tools that are designed to target, in a non-intrusive way, particular weaknesses in a banking system that is backed by deposit insurance. This study, by some of the most eminent authors in the field, is essential reading for all those who are interested in the policy implications of recent events in financial markets.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 104

Keywords: credit crunch, financial crisis, bank bailouts, financial regulation, Financial Services Authority, bank regulation, monetary policy, central banks, Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Community Reinvestment Act, Bank of England, Alan Greenspan

JEL Classification: E3, E31, E32, E42, E43, E44, E5, E51, E52, E53, E58, G18, G21, G28

Accepted Paper Series