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711. Bailout or Bankruptcy?

Author:
Jeffrey A. Miron
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
At the end of September 2007, the U.S. economy had experienced 24 consecutive quarters of positive GDP growth, at an average annual rate of 2.73 percent. The S 500 Index stood at roughly 1,500, having rebounded over 600 points from its low point in 2003. Unemployment was below 5 percent, and inflation was low and stable.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
Political Geography:
United States

712. Origins of the Financial Market Crisis of 2008

Author:
Anna J. Schwartz
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
I begin by describing the factors that contributed to the financial market crisis of 2008. I end by proposing policies that could have prevented the baleful effects that produced the crisis.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Privatization, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
United States

713. Reflections on the Financial Crisis

Author:
Allan H. Meltzer
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
I am going to make several unrelated points, and then I am going to discuss how we got into this financial crisis and some needed changes to reduce the risk of future crises.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Privatization, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
United States

714. Monetary Policy and Asset Prices Revisited

Author:
Donald L. Kohn
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
We are in the midst of a global financial crisis that is now weighing heavily on economies around the world. Although the outlook remains extremely uncertain, both the fragility of the financial system and the weakness in real activity seem likely to persist for a while. To promote maximum sustainable economic growth and price stability, the Federal Reserve has responded to this crisis by easing monetary policy markedly, and we have greatly expanded our liquidity facilities to keep credit flowing when private lenders have become reluctant or unable to do so. Other central banks have also cut policy rates significantly and expanded their lending. In addition, the federal government and governments around the world have taken extraordinary actions to strengthen financial systems to preserve the ability of households and businesses to borrow and spend.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
Political Geography:
United States

715. Asset Prices and Monetary Policy

Author:
Otmar Issing
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Beyond dealing with the immediate problems, any crisis raises questions of why and how we got there and what lessons should be drawn to avoid a repetition of past developments—without laying the ground for a new disaster. This line of inquiry also applies to the current crisis in financial markets. Even during the heaviest turbulence a discussion has started on obvious deficits in the system of regulation and supervision and on badly needed improvements. In this article, I concentrate on monetary policy but that does not mean regulatory measures are irrelevant in this context, quite the opposite.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
Political Geography:
United States

716. What Lessons Can We Learn from the Boom and Turmoil?

Author:
Jeffrey M. Lacker
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The current financial crisis undoubtedly will inspire a great deal of research in the years ahead, and it may take some time before anything like a professional consensus emerges on causes and consequences. After all, it took several decades to document the causes of the Great Depression, and recent research continues to provide new perspectives. Nonetheless, I believe the central questions that are likely to occupy researchers are plainly in view, and some tentative lessons have emerged already. And in any event, legislators are not likely to await the fruits of future scholarship.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Privatization, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
United States

717. Financial Innovation, Regulation, and Reform

Author:
Charles W. Calomiris
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Financial innovations often respond to regulation by sidestepping regulatory restrictions that would otherwise limit activities in which people wish to engage. Securitization of loans (e.g., credit card receivables, or subprime residential mortgages) is often portrayed, correctly, as having arisen in part as a means of “arbitraging” regulatory capital requirements by booking assets off the balance sheets of regulated banks. Originators of the loans were able to maintain lower equity capital against those loans than they otherwise would have needed to maintain if the loans had been placed on their balance sheet.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
Political Geography:
United States

718. Bad Rules Produce Bad Outcomes: Underlying Public-Policy Causes of the U.S. Financial Crisis

Author:
Bert Ely
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The current global financial crisis is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with no end in sight. Already, much political finger pointing has occurred, with most of those fingers pointed at supposedly greedy bankers, investors, and hedge-fund managers as well as the financial deregulation of recent decades. Governments everywhere are rushing to enact new regulatory protections to pre- vent another crisis of this magnitude. Yet if history is any guide, these new regulations will set up the global economy for yet another financial crisis, perhaps worse than the present one, or create regulatory straitjackets that will greatly impede economic growth.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
Political Geography:
United States

719. Federal Reserve Policy and the Housing Bubble

Author:
Lawrence H. White
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The U.S. housing bubble and the fallout from its bursting are not the results of a laissez-faire monetary and financial system. They happened in an unanchored government fiat monetary system with a restricted financial system.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
Political Geography:
United States

720. The Case for Policy Sustainability

Author:
Wolfgang Münchau
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Should we worry about moral hazard while the house is burning? The discussion about economic policy is full of biblical metaphors, the language of water and floods, and of fire extinction during crises. Metaphors, even when not mixed, are often obstacles to the clarity of thought. That is clearly the case with the metaphor of moral hazard in trying to understand the current financial crisis. Instead of focusing on moral hazard, I prefer to use the concept of policy sustainability to argue that sustainable monetary, fiscal, and regulatory policies are essential for lasting prosperity.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
Political Geography:
United States