Innovationen und Transatlantische Bankenkrise: Eine ordnungspolitische Analyse

The US banking crisis and the transatlantic banking crisis, respectively, have caused a global recession and thus raised the debt-GDP ratio in many OECD countries and worldwide. In the analysis presented at first some critical points about financial market innovations and inconsistencies in the institutional framework of the economies are raised. Moreover, the main drivers of the banking crisis have been identified and at the same time a short list of key pro-posals for reforms are presented; a major element for national policymakers here is the introduction of a new tax system which taxes the variance of the rate of return on equity capital - this is an institutional innovation which would criti-cally affect the incentives in the banking sector. The main impact is not necessar-ily to raise the overall tax burden for the banking sector but rather to give incen-tives for sustainable banking: Bankers should face incentives to take a more long term view and to thereby contribute to systemic stability in the banking sector and in the overall economy. Governments which consider responsible economic policy reforms as a key priority on the way to more stability and also as a means for limiting the debt-GDP ratio will pick up the proposed innovation in tax pol-icy. Some of the relevant potential key features based on German data are sketched in the analysis presented. The analysis presented here shows the relevance of institutional developments for the banking crisis and also highlights the need to adequately adjust the institutional framework in OECD countries.