About the Book
In 2008, the world was plunged into a financial and economic crash. This book explores the roots of the crash, including the build-up of global economic imbalances, the explosion in the use of novel financial instruments, the mismanagement of risk, and the specific roles played by housing and debt. It reviews the evidence that on the eve of the crash all was not well and that many political and finance industry leaders ignored the dangers.
The key events of the crash are described, and the main amplification mechanisms explained. An economics lens is used to dissect the bank rescue, paying particular attention to the hidden ways in which it worked, who will ultimately bear the costs, and to what degree new risks were created. The book evaluates the fiscal and monetary policies used to rescue economies, efforts to tackle unemployment, proposals for dealing with collapsing housing markets, austerity and the battles over long-term sovereign debt, the Eurozone crash, and the risks of future economic instability. It reviews reform-of mortgage markets, monetary policy, and banking-designed to make such disasters less likely in future.
Written before, during, and in the years immediately after the crash, it is an engaging chronicle and comprehensive analysis of the events and thinking of these years. The book's arguments take on added authority given that the author had identified, and called attention to, key features of the crash before it happened.
Table of Contents:
PrefacePART I: BEFORE 1: Global Imbalances and the Rise of Debt 2: Housing and Mortgage Market Excess 3: Innovation and Excess in BankingPART II: CRASH AND RESCUE 4: Crash 5: Saving the Gods 6: Healing the Sick and Raising the DeadPART III: BEYOND 7: Return from Slump, and the Jobless and Joyless Recovery 8: Housing Market Meltdown: Rescue and Reform 9: Austerity and the Battles Over Sovereign Debt 10: The Eurozone Crash 11: Global Rebalancing and Instability 12: Banking Reform Closing Thoughts Bibliography
About the Author :
Andrew Farlow is Research Fellow in Economics at Oriel College, University of Oxford, and Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. He is also a Principal Investigator of the Oxford Martin Programme on Vaccines, where he leads the Health Economics Project. After studying economics at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, and graduate economics at the University of Oxford, he now works on asset-price bubbles, banking and housing market instability, global health financing, and the economic impact of disease. He has provided advice to a wide variety of public-and private-sector organisations, including the World Health Organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Department for International Development, the Office of Health Economics, the Areas Global TB Vaccine Foundation, the TB Alliance, and Médecins San Frontières.
Review :
Farlow's focus on the importance of income inequality and deficiency of demand is refreshingly Keynesian in flavour ... Crash and Beyond does much more than simply consider the causes of the crisis; it also looks to the policy response.
A lively narrative, scholarly but with lay appeal, too.
In 2004-05, [Farlow] wrote about how, after the equity bubble in the late 1990s, money was flowing into debt, especially mortgage finance, and how this could lead to another crisis. The theoretical possibility he thought of materialised soon ... The crisis gave Farlow a reputation as an economic astrologer, and brought him many invitations to speak and attest. While this book deals with the crisis, it has a broader subject ... This is not a dry and dusty book in economics; much drama has gone into it. Farlow covers the theoretical debates; but he also goes deep into the events and sequences, the errors and consequences.
Farlow's discussion of the US and European bank rescues also makes compelling reading...a fine addition to the crisis/recession discourse
Andrew Farlow has written a most entertaining book on the Financial Crash, (Before, During and Beyond), that hides considerable scholarship (a 20 page bibliography of academic papers) behind a lively tale of the human frailties revealed. If I had to recommend a single volume on what happened to the inquisitive non-expert, this would be it.
On the whole, this is a scholarly book which enriches our understanding of the crisis. Farlow does not suggest any ultimate solution. He says he would be happy if the book serves as a collective memory of the crash and its bitter aftertaste and acts as guidance or warning to handle future crises. Indeed, he has succeeded.
Very, very compelling research...refreshing...fascinating the way [Farlow] writes about it, the way [he] describes it, and the research [he] brings...in a very readable fashiondealing with extremely sophisticated systems and to boil it down to where the average person can start to really comprehend what took place so that they can better understand how to react in the futureIt is very, very important we look back and understand better what took place and make more informed decisions when it comes to our own finances or how we vote...absolutely fascinating.
Instead of a blow-by-blow account of the numerous bank rescue programmes, [Farlow's] book uses an economics lens to dissect the logic of each category of rescue measure to make them more digestible for the lay read...Half the book is devoted to the numerous policy struggles after the crash. Written before, during and in the years immediately after the crash, the book is a lively chronicle and engaging analysis of the events and thinking of these years and of the economic and political constraints that shaped response...a timely analysisa scholarly, yet highly accessible, account that will appeal to a wide audience and contribute to the public debate about the lessons to be learnt and future policy options.
