To understand the 2008 financial crisis, Neil Fligstein looks to the business models of the big US banks. He shows how firms got hooked on mortgages--originating them, securitizing them, selling those securities, and even buying the same securities. In time their addiction nearly collapsed the...

"To understand the 2008 financial crisis, Neil Fligstein looks to the business models of the big US banks. He shows how firms got hooked on mortgages-originating them, securitizing them, selling those securities, and even buying the same securities. In time their addiction nearly collapsed the...

Deteriorating public finances around the world raise doubts about countries' abilities to bail out their largest banks. For an international sample of banks, this paper investigates the impact of government indebtedness and deficits on bank stock prices and credit default swap spreads. Overall,...