development around the world today (La Porta et al, 1998, 1999 and passim). This paper examines the persistence of the effects of … variation observed in financial development around the world today is likely a product of events of the twentieth century rather …

that the U.S. would experience a sudden stop of capital flows, which would unavoidably drag the world economy into a deep … instead that the root imbalance was of a different kind: The entire world had an insatiable demand for safe debt instruments … of exposing the economy to a systemic panic. This structural problem can be alleviated if governments around the world …