Why the World Economy Needs a Financial Crash and Other Critical Essays on Finance and Financial Economics.

Front Matter -- Half Title -- Advance Praise -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 Why the World Economy Needs a Financial Crash -- PART I The Economics of Financial Inflation -- 2 Money in Globalised Times -- The Evolution of Money -- Bretton Woods -- Free Markets and Globalisation -- 3 Neo-Liberalism and International Finance -- The Rise of International Finance -- Problems of International Finance -- Stabilisation of International Finance -- Conclusion -- 4 Financial Innovation: Better Machines for Financial Inflation? -- 5 The Inflation of Goodwill -- 6 Leverage and Balance Sheet Inflation -- 7 Inflation in Financial Markets -- History -- Bank In ation -- Financial In ation in Securities Markets -- The Theory of Capital Market In ation -- Financial In ation in Developing Countries -- 8 Asset Inflation and Deflation -- PART II The Culture of Financial Inflation -- 9 Twentieth-Century Finance Theory: The Frauds of Economic Innocence -- 10 Fischer Black's 'Revolution' -- 11 Economic Inequality and Asset Inflation -- 12 The Wisdom of Property and the Culture of the Middle Classes -- PART III Financial Crisis -- 13 Everything You Need to Know about the Financial Crisis but Couldn't Find Out Because the Experts Were Explaining It -- What a Credit Crunch Means -- Asset Inflation -- Risk Management -- Securitisation -- The Elimination of Inflation -- Structures Determine Crisis -- The Problem of Excessive Debt -- 14 The Limitations of Financial Stabilisation by Central Banks -- Introduction -- Limitations of Central Bank Instruments -- Two Systems of Convertibility -- Conclusion -- 15 International Business and the Crisis -- 16 Developing Countries in the Crisis Transmission Mechanism -- Epilogue: Does the World Economy Need a Financial Crash? -- End Matter -- Notes -- Introduction.