In this note, we attempt to place the question of how we got to the global financial crisis that began as the US Subprime debacle in the summer of 2007 in the context of an international and historical comparative setting. It is of some poignancy that the “we” here refers to the wealthiest...

Global financial crisis, arising from real estate and finance sectors, has caused extra ordinary costs for the world economy. Problems in the public management model of the US finance and real estate sectors would be accepted as one of the important reasons of the financial failures in the US...

As observed at least in last two decades, financial engineering has not only changed the way of doing business in finance world, but also has changed daily life of average citizens in the leading economies. Structured products named as weapons of mass destruction in some post-crisis comments....

Turkey is well behind the many countries according to socio-economic development criteria. Activities aim to make Istanbul a financial center seem paradoxical due to less developed and risky characteristics of national economy and financial system. It seems that these activities have both...

Why are investors rushing to purchase US government securities when the US is the epicentre of the financial crisis? This column attributes the paradox to key emerging market economies’ exchange practices, which require reserves most often invested in US government securities. America’s...

The global scope and depth of the 2007-2009 crisis is unprecedented in the post World War II period. As such, the most relevant comparison benchmark is the Great Depression, or the Great Contraction as dubbed by Friedman and Schwartz (1963). We highlight some of the similarities between these...

The widespread banking crises since 2007 among advanced economies and the “near” default of Greece in 2010 dashed the popular notion that rich countries have outgrown severe financial crises. Record or near-record declines in output accompanying these events signaled the end of the...

The financial press has often characterized the 2007-2008 United States subprime mess as a new breed of crisis. Indeed, this view often points to the international repercussions of the U.S.-based crisis as evidence that the globalization of financial portfolios has introduced new channels for...

This papers examines the empirical literature on currency crises and proposes a specific early warning system. This system involves monitoring the evolution of several indicators that tend to exhibit unusual behaviorin the periods preceding a crisis. When an indicator exceeds a certain threshold...

Periods of high indebtedness have historically been associated with a rising incidence of default or restructuring of public and private debts. Sometimes the debt restructuring is subtle and takes the form of, “financial repression.” In the heavily regulated financial markets of the Bretton...