Overview

In 2007-2008 the world was plunged into a financial and economic crash. This book explores the multiple entwined roots of the crash, including the build-up of global economic imbalances, the explosion in the use of novel financial instruments, the mismanagement of risk, and the specific roles played by housing and debt. It reviews the evidence that on the eve of the crash all was not well and that many political and finance industry leaders ignored the dangers.The book details the key events of the crash, and explains the main amplification mechanisms. Instead of a blow-by-blow account of the numerous bank rescue programs, it uses an economics lens to dissect the logic of each category of rescue measure to make them more digestible for the lay reader. It pays particular attention to the hidden ways in which rescue measures worked and their longer-term consequences, and investigates why some approaches were favoured over others, who will ultimately bear the costs, what political constraints shaped outcomes, and to what degree new risks were created and problems only delayed.Half the book is devoted to the numerous policy struggles after the crash. It evaluates fiscal and monetary policy measures used to rescue economies, efforts to tackle unemployment, proposals for dealing with collapsing housing markets, the widespread application of austerity and the battles over long-term sovereign debt. A chapter is devoted to the handling of the Eurozone crash and policymakers struggles to fix it, and another to the continuing risks of global economic instabilities, some old and some newly-created. It reviews reforms of mortgage markets, monetary policy and banking designed to make such disasters less likely in the future. Written before, during, and in the years immediately after the crash, the book is a lively chronicle and engaging analysis of the events and thinking of these years and of the economic and political constraints that shaped responses.The book's arguments take on added authority given that the author had identified, and called attention to, key features of the crash before it happened. It is a very timely analysis of how policymakers arrived where they are now and of the many hurdles that still lie ahead. It provides a scholarly yet highly accessible account that will appeal to a wide audience and contribute to the public debate about the lessons to be learnt and future policy options.

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9780199578016

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Reviews

Farlow's focus on the importance of income inequality and deficiency of demand is refreshingly Keynesian in flavour ... Crash and Beyond does much more than simply consider the causes of the crisis; it also looks to the policy response. Victoria Bateman, Times Higher Education A lively narrative, scholarly but with lay appeal, too. Oxford Today In 2004-05, [Farlow] wrote about how, after the equity bubble in the late 1990s, money was flowing into debt, especially mortgage finance, and how this could lead to another crisis. The theoretical possibility he thought of materialised soon ... The crisis gave Farlow a reputation as an economic astrologer, and brought him many invitations to speak and attest. While this book deals with the crisis, it has a broader subject ... This is not a dry and dusty book in economics; much drama has gone into it. Farlow covers the theoretical debates; but he also goes deep into the events and sequences, the errors and consequences. Ashok V Desai, Businessworld A lively narrative, scholarly but with lay appeal, too. Oxford Today

Farlow's focus on the importance of income inequality and deficiency of demand is refreshingly Keynesian in flavour ... Crash and Beyond does much more than simply consider the causes of the crisis; it also looks to the policy response. Victoria Bateman, Times Higher Education

Farlow's discussion of the US and European bank rescues also makes compelling reading...a fine addition to the crisis/recession discourse * Joel Campbell, International Affairs * In 2004-05, [Farlow] wrote about how, after the equity bubble in the late 1990s, money was flowing into debt, especially mortgage finance, and how this could lead to another crisis. The theoretical possibility he thought of materialised soon ... The crisis gave Farlow a reputation as an economic astrologer, and brought him many invitations to speak and attest. While this book deals with the crisis, it has a broader subject ... This is not a dry and dusty book in economics; much drama has gone into it. Farlow covers the theoretical debates; but he also goes deep into the events and sequences, the errors and consequences. * Ashok V Desai, Businessworld * A lively narrative, scholarly but with lay appeal, too. * Oxford Today * On the whole, this is a scholarly book which enriches our understanding of the crisis. Farlow does not suggest any ultimate solution. He says he would be happy if the book serves as a collective memory of the crash and its bitter aftertaste and acts as guidance or warning to handle future crises. Indeed, he has succeeded. * The Hindu * Farlow's focus on the importance of income inequality and deficiency of demand is refreshingly Keynesian in flavour ... Crash and Beyond does much more than simply consider the causes of the crisis; it also looks to the policy response. * Victoria Bateman, Times Higher Education *

Author Information

Andrew Farlow is Research Fellow in Economics at Oriel College, University of Oxford. Educated in economics at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, he currently works in a range of areas of financial economics, including financial bubbles and instability, and global health financing. He has provided advice to a wide variety of public and private sector organizations including: Credit Suisse First Boston; the World Health Organisation; UK Department for International Development; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; George Institute for International Health; Office of Health Economics, London; TB Alliance; Aeras Global TB Foundation; Médecins Sans Frontières; Wellcome Trust; and a range of governments.

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