Global Financial Crises And Reforms

This book is a collection of papers that provides deeper insight into the financial crises of the 1990's in Asia and Latin America and explores the possibilities for their solution.

Systematically exploring the consequences of the global financial crisis, this text focuses primarily on the impact on policy and politics. It asks how governments responded to the challenges that the crisis has posed, and the policy and political impact of the combination of both the crisis itself and these responses.

The ongoing global financial crisis is rooted in a combination of factors common to previous financial crises and some new factors. The crisis has brought to light a number of deficiencies in financial regulation and architecture, particularly in the treatment of systemically important financial institutions, the assessments of systemic risks and vulnerabilities, and the resolution of financial institutions. The global nature of the financial crisis has made clear that financially integrated markets, while offering many benefits, can also pose significant risks, with large real economic consequences. Deep reforms are therefore needed to the international financial architecture to safeguard the stability of an increasingly financially integrated world.

We identify current challenges for creating stable, yet efficient financial systems using lessons from recent and past crises. Reforms need to start from three tenets: adopting a system-wide perspective explicitly aimed at addressing market failures; understanding and incorporating into regulations agents’ incentives so as to align them better with societies’ goals; and acknowledging that risks of crises will always remain, in part due to (unknown) unknowns – be they tipping points, fault lines, or spillovers. Corresponding to these three tenets, specific areas for further reforms are identified. Policy makers need to resist, however, fine-tuning regulations: a “do not harm” approach is often preferable. And as risks will remain, crisis management needs to be made an integral part of system design, not relegated to improvisation after the fact.

'Filled with fresh observations from the global financial crisis, this book provides a blueprint for making Asia's financial systems safe. With contributions from experts in several countries, it is both comprehensive and rigorous. It will be invaluable to policy makers and students of finance everywhere, but its unique Asian perspective provides special insight into the systems that managed to ride out the global crisis but absent further reform might set the stage for another one. The book's analysis and recommendations deserve urgent policy attention.' Peter Petri, Brandeis University, US 'What are the lessons of the global financial crisis of 20072009 for Asia? This is a key issue for Asia today. On one hand, some observers argue that following the Asian financial crisis in 199798, most Asian developing countries built up strong mechanisms to guarantee financial stability. But the recent financial shocks across America and Europe show that even the best financial systems have key weaknesses. This book is a valuable guide for Asian financial policy-makers of the road ahead.' Peter McCawley, Australian National University In light of the experience of the global financial crisis, this book develops concrete recommendations for financial sector reform and regulation in Asian economies aimed at preventing the recurrence of systemic financial crises, improving the ability to manage and resolve crises, managing capital flows, and promoting the development of Asian bond markets. The focus of the book is on longer-term structural measures. It explores areas such as the scope for regional monitoring and cooperation; deepening and integration of Asian bond and money markets; liberalization/regulation of capital flows; issues related to macroprudential oversight, regulatory structure and cooperation; as well as role of state intervention in crisis resolution in the financial sector. The need for and impacts of regulations on innovative financial products and specific investor groups such as hedge funds; ways to reduce systemic risk of pro-cyclicality of regulation; and ways to improve the infrastructure and regulatory environment for local currency bond markets, are also examined in depth. The book will appeal to public and private finance experts, policy and decisions makers in governments and banks, think-tanks, and students in graduate courses related to financial and economic development.

This book explains the reforms that have been implemented in France and Germany in response to the global financial crisis. It focuses on international banking reforms and domestic responses to the crisis.

The financial crisis that erupted in 2008 severely affected the global economy, plunging most countries into a recession with aftershocks still being felt today. Canada was able to weather the crisis well in comparison to many euro-zone countries and the United States, but it did not escape unscathed. Two major themes are explored in this volume: Canada’s role in the international financial system and the Canadian policy response to the global financial crisis. These themes are examined in light of the shift from the classical gold standard to Bretton Woods to the “non-system” of late, the finance-trade crossover agenda, the changing role of central banks, the European Monetary Union, developing countries and a post-financial crisis global political economy. What becomes clear in this volume is that Canada plays a powerful role, which belies its size, in the development of the financial system and its regulation at an international level. Crisis and Reform: Canada and the International Financial System — the 28th volume of the influential Canada Among Nations series — examines the global financial crisis through Canada’s historical and current role in the international financial system. Canada has been held up as a shining example of good governance during the financial crisis, and its prominent role within international financial institutions should grow as Canada continues as a leading player in the global financial system.

The wave of neoliberal economic reforms in the developing world since the 1980s has been regarded as the result of both severe economic crises and policy pressures from global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Using comparative evidence from the initiation and implementation of IMF programs in Latin America and Eastern Europe, From Economic Crisis to Reform shows that economic crises do not necessarily persuade governments to adopt IMF-style economic policies. Instead, ideology, interests, and institutions, at both the international and domestic levels, mediate responses to such crises. Grigore Pop-Eleches explains that the IMF's response to economic crises reflects the changing priorities of large IMF member countries. He argues that the IMF gives greater attention and favorable treatment to economic crises when they occur in economically or politically important countries. The book also shows how during the neoliberal consensus of the 1990s, economic crises triggered IMF-style reforms from governments across the ideological spectrum and how these reforms were broadly compatible with democratic politics. By contrast, during the Latin American debt crisis, the contentious politics of IMF programs reflected the ideological rivalries of the Cold War. Economic crises triggered ideologically divergent domestic policy responses and democracy was often at odds with economic adjustment. The author demonstrates that an economic crisis triggers neoliberal economic reforms only when the government and the IMF agree about the roots and severity of the crisis.

The 2008 crash was the worst financial crisis and the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. It triggered a complete overhaul of the global regulatory environment, ushering in a stream of new rules and laws to combat the perceived weakness of the financial system. While the global economy came back from the brink, the continuing effects of the crisis include increasing economic inequality and political polarization. After the Crash is an innovative analysis of the crisis and its ongoing influence on the global regulatory, financial, and political landscape, with timely discussions of the key issues for our economic future. It brings together a range of experts and practitioners, including Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winner; former congressman Barney Frank; former treasury secretary Jacob Lew; Paul Tucker, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England; and Steve Cutler, general counsel of JP Morgan Chase during the financial crisis. Each poses crucial questions: What were the origins of the crisis? How effective were international and domestic regulatory responses? Have we addressed the roots of the crisis through reform and regulation? Are our financial systems and the global economy better able to withstand another crash? After the Crash is vital reading as both a retrospective on the last crisis and an analysis of possible sources of the next one.