Overview

Contributing to interdisciplinary debates in cultural economy and the social studies of finance, and grounded in extensive empirical research, Liquidity Lost offers an innovative analysis of how the contemporary global financial crisis was governed. Through an exploration of the interventions made by central banks, treasuries, and regulatory authorities in the Anglo-American heartland of the crisis between 2007 and 2011, experimental and strategic apparatuses of crisis governance are shown to have emerged. These discrete apparatuses established six technical problems to be acted upon - liquidity, toxicity, solvency, risk, regulation, and debt - but also shared certain proclivities and preferences. Crisis governance assembled discourses and devices of economy in relation with sovereign monetary, fiscal, and regulatory techniques, and elicited an affective atmosphere of confidence. It also sought to secure the financialized way of life which turns on the opportunities ostensibly afforded by uncertain financial circulations, and gave rise to post-crisis technical fixes designed to advance the resilience of banking and the macro-prudential regulation of financial stability. Thus, the consensus that prevails across economics, political economy, and beyond - wherein sovereign state institutions are cast as coming to the rescue of the markets, banking, or neo-liberal capitalism - conceals a great deal more than it reveals about the governance of the global financial crisis.

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9780199683789

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Reviews

This book by Langley ... offers an innovative analysis of how the global financial crisis of 2007 was governed ...Recommended * W. S. Curran, emeritus, Trinity College (CT), CHOICE * Langley has provided us with a new intellectual architecture, a robust approach to the dazzling complexities of the crisis and its aftermath, while also exposing the cultural exigencies underwriting wealth creation and popular security in our time. By so doing he extends and refines the ambitions of cultural economy, an emerging interdisciplinary field drawing on expertise in sociology, geography, anthropology, business, and organizational studies. * Douglas R. Holmes, Binghamton University * Langley offers a distinctive, theoretically sophisticated analysis of how the most serious financial crisis for nearly a century was managed. * Donald MacKenzie, Professor of Sociology, University of Edinburgh * Liquidity Lost presents a remarkable alternative perspective on the recent financial crisis. Both popular and critical accounts have been quick to understand the response to the economic upheaval in familiar categories: the state intervened to save the market. By contrast, Paul Langley shows how, in their efforts to navigate the crisis, policymakers reformatted both the regulatory instruments of government and the mechanisms of the economy. Among the books striking accomplishments is its account of how economics works both in the wild and in real time. * Stephen J. Collier, Associate Professor, the New School of Public Management * If you wonder, like everyone does, why the most severe financial crisis in living memory has not produced a fundamental change in the way we regulate economies and understand the role of banks, read this book. Drawing on an original reading of Deleuzes notions of modulation and mitigation, Langley shows in an empirically detailed manner how crisis response was driven by ad-hoc initiatives, minor modulations and sometimes conflicting approaches that were largely oriented toward rebuilding affective atmospheres of trust. Steering away from grand conceptions of neoliberalism, Langleys attentiveness to the situated contingency of crisis management brings the politics back into our understanding of financial regulation. * Marieke de Goede, Professor of Politics, University of Amsterdam *

This book by Langley ... offers an innovative analysis of how the global financial crisis of 2007 was governed ...Recommended * W. S. Curran, emeritus, Trinity College (CT), CHOICE * Langley has provided us with a new intellectual architecture, a robust approach to the dazzling complexities of the crisis and its aftermath, while also exposing the cultural exigencies underwriting wealth creation and popular security in our time. By so doing he extends and refines the ambitions of cultural economy, an emerging interdisciplinary field drawing on expertise in sociology, geography, anthropology, business, and organizational studies. * Douglas R. Holmes, Binghamton University * Langley offers a distinctive, theoretically sophisticated analysis of how the most serious financial crisis for nearly a century was managed. * Donald MacKenzie, Professor of Sociology, University of Edinburgh * Liquidity Lost presents a remarkable alternative perspective on the recent financial crisis. Both popular and critical accounts have been quick to understand the response to the economic upheaval in familiar categories: the state intervened to save the market. By contrast, Paul Langley shows how, in their efforts to navigate the crisis, policymakers reformatted both the regulatory instruments of government and the mechanisms of the economy. Among the books striking accomplishments is its account of how economics works both in the wild and in real time. * Stephen J. Collier, Associate Professor, the New School of Public Management * If you wonder, like everyone does, why the most severe financial crisis in living memory has not produced a fundamental change in the way we regulate economies and understand the role of banks, read this book. Drawing on an original reading of Deleuzes notions of modulation and mitigation, Langley shows in an empirically detailed manner how crisis response was driven by ad-hoc initiatives, minor modulations and sometimes conflicting approaches that were largely oriented toward rebuilding affective atmospheres of trust. Steering away from grand conceptions of neoliberalism, Langleys attentiveness to the situated contingency of crisis management brings the politics back into our understanding of financial regulation. * Marieke de Goede, Professor of Politics, University of Amsterdam *

Langley has provided us with a new intellectual architecture, a robust approach to the dazzling complexities of the crisis and its aftermath, while also exposing the cultural exigencies underwriting wealth creation and popular security in our time. By so doing he extends and refines the ambitions of cultural economy, an emerging interdisciplinary field drawing on expertise in sociology, geography, anthropology, business, and organizational studies. Douglas R. Holmes, Binghamton University Langley offers a distinctive, theoretically sophisticated analysis of how the most serious financial crisis for nearly a century was managed. Donald MacKenzie, Professor of Sociology, University of Edinburgh Liquidity Lost presents a remarkable alternative perspective on the recent financial crisis. Both popular and critical accounts have been quick to understand the response to the economic upheaval in familiar categories: the state intervened to save the market. By contrast, Paul Langley shows how, in their efforts to navigate the crisis, policymakers reformatted both the regulatory instruments of government and the mechanisms of the economy. Among the books striking accomplishments is its account of how economics works both in the wild and in real time. Stephen J. Collier, Associate Professor, the New School of Public Management If you wonder, like everyone does, why the most severe financial crisis in living memory has not produced a fundamental change in the way we regulate economies and understand the role of banks, read this book. Drawing on an original reading of Deleuzes notions of modulation and mitigation, Langley shows in an empirically detailed manner how crisis response was driven by ad-hoc initiatives, minor modulations and sometimes conflicting approaches that were largely oriented toward rebuilding affective atmospheres of trust. Steering away from grand conceptions of neoliberalism, Langleys attentiveness to the situated contingency of crisis management brings the politics back into our understanding of financial regulation. Marieke de Goede, Professor of Politics, University of Amsterdam

Author Information

Paul Langley is Reader in Economic Geography at the Department of Geography, Durham University, UK. He has published extensively on many aspects of global finance, and is the author of two previous books: The Everyday Life of Global Finance (Oxford University Press, 2008); and World Financial Orders (Routledge, 2002).

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