"This paper compares the recent global crisis and recession to earlier international financial crises and recessions. Based on existing chronologies of banking, currency and debt crises we identify clusters of crises. We use an identification of extreme events and a weighting scheme based on...

Foreword / François-Charles Laprévote, Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton -- The special nature of banks and its challenges for competition policy / Ioannis Kokkoris -- Competition, stability and moral hazard: the tension between financial regulation and State aid control / Joanna Gray and...