From Financial Crisis to Global Recovery

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.

About the Author :
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.

Review :
Insightful, far-ranging, and complete, yet still manages to be a lot of fun to read.--Robert J. Shiller, Yale University Padma Desai explains in a friendly manner how a systematic breakdown of factors led to the current recession-- "The Southampton Press" 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.--George A. Akerlof, University of California, Berkeley, and Nobel Laureate in Economics 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.--Nicholas Stern, London School of Economics and former chief economist of the World Bank 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.--Alan S. Blinder, Princeton University, former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve 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.--Martin Feldstein, Harvard University, President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research and former chief economic advisor to President Reagan 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.--Douglas A. Irwin, Dartmouth College, author of Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression