Masters of the Universe, Slaves of the Market
Masters of the Universe, Slaves of the Market

Author: Stephen Bell

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2015-03-09

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0674425618

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This account of the financial crisis of 2008–2009 compares banking systems in the United States and the United Kingdom to those of Canada and Australia and explains why the system imploded in the former but not the latter. Central to this analysis are differences in bankers’ beliefs and incentives in different banking markets. A boom mentality and fear of being left behind by competitors drove many U.S. and British bank executives to take extraordinary risks in creating new financial products. Intense market competition, poorly understood trading instruments, and escalating system complexity both drove and misled bankers. Formerly illiquid assets such as mortgages and other forms of debt were repackaged into complex securities, including collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). These were then traded on an industrial scale, and in 2007 and 2008, when their value collapsed, economic activity fell into a deep freeze. The financial crisis threatened not just investment banks and their insurers but also individual homeowners and workers at every level. In contrast, because banks in Canada and Australia could make good profits through traditional lending practices, they did not confront the same pressures to reinvent themselves as did banks in the United States and the United Kingdom, thus allowing them to avoid the fate of their overseas counterparts. Stephen Bell and Andrew Hindmoor argue that trading and systemic risk in the banking system need to be reined in. However, prospects for this are not promising given the commitment of governments in the crisis-hit economies to protect the “international competitiveness” of the London and New York financial markets.

Masters of the Universe, Slaves of the Market
Masters of the Universe, Slaves of the Market

Author: Stephen Bell

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2015-03-09

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0674743881

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Stephen Bell and Andrew Hindmoor compare banking systems in the U.S. and UK to those of Canada and Australia and explain why the system imploded in the former but not the latter. Canadian and Australian banks were able to make profits through traditional lending practices, unlike their competition-driven, risk-taking U.S. and UK counterparts.

The Rise of the People’s Bank of China
The Rise of the People’s Bank of China

Author: Stephen Bell

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2013-06-10

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 0674073614

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With $4.5 trillion in total assets, the People’s Bank of China now surpasses the U.S. Federal Reserve as the world’s biggest central bank. The Rise of the People’s Bank of China investigates how this increasingly authoritative institution grew from a Leninist party-state that once jealously guarded control of banking and macroeconomic policy. Relying on interviews with key players, this book is the first comprehensive and up-to-date account of the evolution of the central banking and monetary policy system in reform China. Stephen Bell and Hui Feng trace the bank’s ascent to Beijing’s policy circle, and explore the political and institutional dynamics behind its rise. In the early 1990s, the PBC—benefitting from political patronage and perceptions of its unique professional competency—found itself positioned to help steer the Chinese economy toward a more liberal, market-oriented system. Over the following decades, the PBC has assumed a prominent role in policy deliberations and financial reforms, such as fighting inflation, relaxing China’s exchange rate regime, managing reserves, reforming banking, and internationalizing the renminbi. Today, the People’s Bank of China confronts significant challenges in controlling inflation on the back of runaway growth, but it has established a strong track record in setting policy for both domestic reform and integration into the global economy.

How the Other Half Banks
How the Other Half Banks

Author: Mehrsa Baradaran

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2015-10-06

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0674495446

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The United States has two separate banking systems today—one serving the well-to-do and another exploiting everyone else. How the Other Half Banks contributes to the growing conversation on American inequality by highlighting one of its prime causes: unequal credit. Mehrsa Baradaran examines how a significant portion of the population, deserted by banks, is forced to wander through a Wild West of payday lenders and check-cashing services to cover emergency expenses and pay for necessities—all thanks to deregulation that began in the 1970s and continues decades later. “Baradaran argues persuasively that the banking industry, fattened on public subsidies (including too-big-to-fail bailouts), owes low-income families a better deal...How the Other Half Banks is well researched and clearly written...The bankers who fully understand the system are heavily invested in it. Books like this are written for the rest of us.” —Nancy Folbre, New York Times Book Review “How the Other Half Banks tells an important story, one in which we have allowed the profit motives of banks to trump the public interest.” —Lisa J. Servon, American Prospect

The Color of Money
The Color of Money

Author: Mehrsa Baradaran

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2017-09-14

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 0674982304

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“Read this book. It explains so much about the moment...Beautiful, heartbreaking work.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates “A deep accounting of how America got to a point where a median white family has 13 times more wealth than the median black family.” —The Atlantic “Extraordinary...Baradaran focuses on a part of the American story that’s often ignored: the way African Americans were locked out of the financial engines that create wealth in America.” —Ezra Klein When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than 1 percent of the total wealth in America. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. The Color of Money seeks to explain the stubborn persistence of this racial wealth gap by focusing on the generators of wealth in the black community: black banks. With the civil rights movement in full swing, President Nixon promoted “black capitalism,” a plan to support black banks and minority-owned businesses. But the catch-22 of black banking is that the very institutions needed to help communities escape the deep poverty caused by discrimination and segregation inevitably became victims of that same poverty. In this timely and eye-opening account, Baradaran challenges the long-standing belief that black communities could ever really hope to accumulate wealth in a segregated economy. “Black capitalism has not improved the economic lives of black people, and Baradaran deftly explains the reasons why.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “A must read for anyone interested in closing America’s racial wealth gap.” —Black Perspectives

The Politics of Regime Complexity in International Derivatives Regulation
The Politics of Regime Complexity in International Derivatives Regulation

Author: Lucia Quaglia

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-11-12

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 019263562X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book provides the first comprehensive account of post-crisis international regulation of derivatives by bringing together the international relations literature on regime complexity and the international political economy literature on financial regulation. It addresses three questions: What factors drove international standard-setting on derivatives post-crisis? Why did international regime complexity emerge? And how was it managed and with what outcomes? This research innovatively combines a state-centric, a transgovernmental, and business-led explanations. It examines all the main sets of standards (or elemental regimes) concerning various aspects of derivatives markets, namely: trading, clearing, and reporting of derivatives; resilience, recovery and resolution of central counterparties; capital requirements for bank exposures to central counterparties and derivatives; margins for derivatives non-centrally cleared. It is argued that regime complexity in derivatives ensued from the multi-dimensionality and the interlinkages of the problems to tackle, especially given the fact that it was a new policy area without a focal international standard-setter. Despite these challenges, international cooperation resulted in relatively precise, stringent, and consistent rules, even though there was variation across standards. The main jurisdictions played an important role in managing regime complexity, but their effectiveness was constrained by limited domestic coordination. Networks of regulators gathered in international standard-setting bodies deployed a variety of formal and informal coordination tools to deal with regime complexity. The financial industry, at times, lobbied for less precise and stringent rules and engaged in 'venue shopping', whereas, other times, it contributed to the quest for regulatory consistency.

Quarterly Essay 79 The End of Certainty
Quarterly Essay 79 The End of Certainty

Author: Katharine Murphy

Publisher: Black Inc.

Published: 2020-09-07

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 1743821549

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What has the coronavirus pandemic revealed about Scott Morrison, and where is he taking Australia? Epidemics are mirrors. What has COVID-19 revealed about Australia, and about Scott Morrison and his government? In this gripping essay, Katharine Murphy goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the response to the crisis. Drawing on interviews with Morrison, Brendan Murphy, Josh Frydenberg, Sally McManus and other players, she traces how the key health and economic decisions were taken. Her account is twinned with a portrait of the prime minister. She explores his blend of pragmatism and faith, and shows how a leader characterised by secrecy and fierce certainty learnt to compromise and reach out – with notable exceptions. Now, as the nation turns inwards and unemployment rises, our faith in government is about to be tested anew. What does “We’re all in this together” truly mean? Will Morrison snap back to Liberal hardman, or will he redefine centre-right politics in this country? “Morrison’s a partisan, blue team to the core, but his political philosophy is hard to pin down, because it is predominantly trouble-shooting. By instinct, Morrison is a power player and a populist, not a philosopher; a repairer of walls, not a writer of manifestos ... [his] conservatism is extreme pragmatism in defence of what he regards as the core of the nation.” —Katharine Murphy, The End of Certainty

The Oxford Handbook of Australian Politics
The Oxford Handbook of Australian Politics

Author: Jenny M. Lewis

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2022-01-20

Total Pages: 625

ISBN-13: 0198805462

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"BOOK Abstract: The Oxford Handbook of Australian Politics is a comprehensive collection that considers Australia's distinctive politics-both ancient and modern-at all levels and across many themes. It examines the factors that make Australian politics unique and interesting, while firmly placing these in the context of the nation's Indigenous and imported heritage and global engagement. The book presents an account of Australian politics that recognizes and celebrates its inherent diversity by taking a thematic approach in six parts. The first theme addresses Australia's unique inheritances, examining the development of its political culture in relation to the arrival of British colonists and their conflicts with First Nations peoples, as well as the resulting geopolitics. The second theme, improvization, focuses on Australia's political institutions and how they have evolved. Place-making is then considered to assess how geography, distance, Indigenous presence, and migration shape Australian politics. Recurrent dilemmas centre on a range of complex, political problems and their influence on contemporary political practice. Politics, policy, and public administration cover how Australia has been a world leader in some respects, and a laggard in others when dealing with important policy challenges. The final theme, studying Australian politics, introduces some key areas in the study of Australian politics and identifies the strengths and shortcomings of the discipline. This Handbook is an opportunity for others to consider the nation's unique politics from the perspective of leading and emerging scholars, and to gain a strong sense of its imperfections, its enduring challenges, and its strengths. Key Words: Australia, politics, policy, Indigenous heritage, colonial settlement, political institutions, place-making, political dilemmas, policy, and public administration, studying politics"--

The Globalization of International Society
The Globalization of International Society

Author: Timothy Dunne

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 520

ISBN-13: 0198793421

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume reconsiders the process of globalization, drawing on a wealth of new perspectives to understand better this momentous historical development.

Law, Policy and Climate Change
Law, Policy and Climate Change

Author: Dariel De Sousa

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-09-29

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1000683931

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Focusing on systemic risks caused by climate change, this book examines how these risks can be effectively regulated to ensure resilience and avoid catastrophe. Systemic risks are risks that threaten the systems upon which society depends, including ecosystems, social systems, financial systems, and systems of infrastructure. Such risks are typically characterised by inherent complexity, profound uncertainty, and overwhelming ambiguity. In combination, these features pose significant regulatory challenges for policy and law-makers. Examining how different types of systemic risks caused by climate change are being regulated in four different jurisdictions – the EU, the UK, the US and Australia – this book identifies deficiencies associated with regulating systemic risks using a traditional approach, based on a linear relationship between risk and regulation, which is widely used to regulate risk. The book advances a regulatory approach that is, instead, founded on the concept of "risk governance". This involves a structured yet flexible, holistic, interdisciplinary and inclusive basis for responding to systemic risks; and it is, this book argues, a more effective basis for regulating systemic risks given their uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. This book will appeal to academics, policy and law-makers and practitioners working at the intersection of law and policy in the areas of regulation, risk management and climate change.