GLOBAL IMBALANCES AND FINANCIAL SECTOR INSTABILITIES: INTRODUCTION

ABSTRACT This special issue provides several views about the sources of the current crisis and policy solutions to cope with it. It brings together papers from academic institutions, international organizations and central banks. The first three papers argue that the crisis was triggered by the lack of confidence of the investors in the markets. This was reflected, for instance, in the pricing of the public debt (with an increase in the sovereign debt spreads) and in the reduced syndicated lending in wholesale lending markets. The other three papers focus on policy aspects by analyzing indicators that could serve as early warning signals of increasing stress and vulnerability. The authors propose three set of indicators: policy‐based indicators, some variables used in the macro‐prudential literature and financial indexes. The papers are a selection of papers presented at a Conference on Macroeconomic and financial vulnerability indicators in advanced economies co‐organizes by the Banque de France and the University of Strasbourg on 13–14 September 2013. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.