The crisis and beyond: thinking outside the box

Claude Hillinger

No 2010-1, Economics Discussion Papers from Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel)

Abstract: In this paper the author attempts an analysis of the current financial/economic crisis that is wider ranging and more fundamental than he has been able to find. For this purpose he reviews some social science literature that views the current crisis as an episode in the secular decline of the United States and more generally of the Western Democracies. The timidity of current reforms, which is striking when compared to those that followed the excesses of the Gilded Age and the Great Depression, can be understood in this framework. The author discusses alternatives to the financial bailouts and shows how the crisis could have been dealt with more efficiently and at little cost to taxpayers. Finally, he discusses fundamental reforms that would greatly reduce the volatility of financial markets and increase their efficiency.

Keywords: Deficit financing; financial crisis; financial instability; full reserve banking; toxic assets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E31 E42 E58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe, nep-mac and nep-rmg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.economics-ejournal.org/economics/discussionpapers/2010-1
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/29535/1/615808565.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The crisis and beyond: Thinking outside the box (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:20101

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Discussion Papers from Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().