The centrality of finance -- Financialization and social structures of accumulation -- Realism in financial economics -- The shadow of the financial system -- The coming apart -- Rescue and the limits of reform -- Nations, globalization, and financialization -- The present in history

The thesis studies three pivotal episodes in the evolution of what became the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09. These three events - the collapse of the US housing market, the breakdown of the repo money market, and the banking crash - are indispensable for understanding some of the key...

This thesis consists out of three essays on systemic risk in the banking system and stock market contagion. The first essay (Trapp and Wewel, 2013, "Transatlantic systemic risk") investigates which type of systemic risk common shocks or contagion dominated in the US and European banking systems...