From Financial Crisis to Global Recovery

Padma Desai

Padma Desai

From Financial Crisis to Global Recovery

Columbia University Press | 2011

https://doi.org/10.7312/desa15786

Overview
Contents

About this book

In this book, Padma Desai makes the complexities of economic policy and financial reform accessible to a wide audience. Merging a compelling narrative with scholarly research, she begins with a systematic breakdown of the factors leading to America's recent recession, describing the monetary policy, tax practices, subprime mortgage scandals, and lax regulation that contributed to the crisis. She also discusses the Treasury-Fed rescue deals that saved several financial institutions and the involvement of Congress in passing restorative policies.

Desai follows with an analysis of stress tests and other economic measures, and she frankly assesses whether the U.S. economy is truly on the mend. Expanding her view, she considers the prospects for recovery in North America as a whole, as well as in Europe, Asia, and South America, and the extent and value of U.S. and E.U. regulatory proposals. Refocusing on American financial practices, Desai evaluates hedge funds and derivatives, credit default swaps, and rating agencies, pondering whether the dollar can remain a reserve currency. She concludes with a historical comparison of the Great Depression and the Great Recession, weighing the effect of the economic collapse on the future of American capitalism.

Author information

Padma Desai is the Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of Comparative Economic Systems and director of the Center for Transition Economies at Columbia University. She has served as president of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies and as advisor to the Russian Finance Ministry for the U.S. Treasury. She is the author of Conversations on Russia and Financial Crisis, Contagion, and Containment: From Asia to Argentina.

Reviews

Padma Desai explains in a friendly manner how a systematic breakdown of factors led to the current recession

Martin Feldstein, Harvard University, President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research and former chief economic advisor to President Reagan:
Padma Desai provides a wide-ranging analysis of the economic problems of the past decade and the prospects for the future of the global economy. She brings the unique perspective of someone who has taught in the United States for decades but also is deeply rooted in her native India and the developments in the Soviet Union and Russia, the focus of her academic research.

Alan S. Blinder, Princeton University, former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve:
Students keep asking me: where can I read about the financial crisis and what we are—or are not—doing about it? Without putting together a reading list of twenty to thirty items, there aren't many good answers. Padma Desai's new book, which is at once comprehensive and brief, remedies that.

George A. Akerlof, University of California, Berkeley, and Nobel Laureate in Economics:
Padma Desai explains the World Financial Crisis in human terms. In every chapter she associates the abstract principles of economics with stories about real people in real situations. These stories focus on who was making what decisions and when and why they were made. It is what we need to understand the crisis.

Robert J. Shiller, Yale University:
Insightful, far-ranging, and complete, yet still manages to be a lot of fun to read.

Nicholas Stern, London School of Economics and former chief economist of the World Bank:
Padma Desai provides a very wise and thoughtful account of the origins of the financial crisis, the prospect and policies for recovery, and the future of national and international economic management. She also draws very effectively on her great experience and distinction as a scholar of economic transformation, economic history, and international economics.

Douglas A. Irwin, Dartmouth College, author of Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression:
There are an abundance of books by journalists providing an insider's chronology of events. Yet there are few books that step back and provide an analytical perspective on the financial meltdown and the Great Recession. That is the great service Padma Desai provides in this book.

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
Contents Free access PDF PDF	vii
Preface Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	ix
1. Financial Crisis Origin Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	1
2. Banking Sector Stress Tests: United States Versus the European Union Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	21
3. Is the U.S. Economy on the Mend? Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	45
4. Global Recovery Prospects: North America and Eu rope, Asia, and South America Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	80
5. Hedge Funds and Derivatives, Credit Default Swaps, and Rating Agencies Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	110
6. U.S. and EU Regulatory Proposals: How Strict? How Cooperative? Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	127
7. The Dollar’s Future as a Reserve Currency Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	173
8. The Great Depression and the Current Financial Crisis Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	192
9. The Future of American Capitalism Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	214
Notes Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	235
Index Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	243

From Financial Crisis to Global Recovery

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