Intro; Contents; Contributors; List of Figures; List of Tables; 1 A Retrospective on the 2008 Global Financial Crisis; The Chapters in This Volume; Part I The Source of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis; 2 The Financial Alchemy That Failed; Introduction; The Four Ages of Capitalism; The Financial Alchemy That Failed: Three Narratives; Narrative One: Pecuniary Externalities in Investment Banking; Narrative Two: Information Failures; Myopia and the Leverage Cycle; Asymmetric Information and Cheating; Narrative Three: A Bank Run; Two Fallacies of Composition; Regulators Who Were Captured

The Business Model that FailedFinally: What About the Law?; In the US: 'Deferred Prosecution Agreements'; In Iceland: Transparency and Prosecution; In the UK: A Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards; Conclusion; Postscript; Annex A: Cross-Border Finance-A Snapshot; Annex B: Emergency Liquidity and Capital Support Provided to Banking; Annex C: Legal Penalties Imposed on US Investment Banks and Credit Rating Agencies; References; 3 Prudential Regulation and Capital Controls; Introduction; The Primrose Path or Sound Banking?; Conclusions; References

4 Three Grand State Projects Meet the Financial SystemIntroduction; Three Grand Projects; The Grand Projects, Real Interest Rates, and the Financial Sector Response; Conclusion; 5 The 2008 GFC: Savings or Banking Glut?; Comparing and Contrasting the Two Gluts; Which Capital Flow Matches US Mortgage Market Trends?; European Banks as Producers of MBS; Did European Banks Hog Private US MBS?; Why Did European Banks Bet the Bank on US Mortgages?; Conclusions; References; 6 Capital Flows into the United States Ahead of the Great North Atlantic Financial Crisis; Introduction

The Shifting Sectoral Imbalance in the U.S. EconomyThe Rise in Reserves and Thus Demand for Safe Reserve Assets; A Word on Data Limitations; The Surge in Private Inflows and Outflows That Preceded the Global Crisis; After Three Sudden Stops, a Surge: The Crisis Driven Inflow into U.S. Treasuries; Conclusion; References; 7 The Foreign Capital Flow and Domestic Drivers of the US Financial Crisis and Its Spread Globally; Introduction; The Buildup; Monetary Conditions Were Relatively Easy; Global Imbalances Were Part of a Distorted Pattern of Economic Activity

Complacency Infected the Markets and the RegulatorsA Housing Boom Ensued; A Fragile Financial System; The Buildup of Leverage in the Financial System; Increasing Maturity Transformation; Increasing Opacity of Financial Instruments and Markets; Increasing Intensity of Incentive-Based Compensation; The US Toll; The Housing Boom Was Followed by a Bust; The Financial and Fallout from the End of the Housing Boom Was Amplified by the Fragility of the Financial System; The Scale of Financial Distress in the United States; The Global Spread; References; 8 Financial Crises and Bank Capital