The great depression of 1929 and the great financial crisis of 2008 have been the two big events of the last 75 years. Not only have they produced serious economic consequences but they also changed our view of economics and policymaking. The aim of this work is to compare these two great crises...

We build a macro-finance model of shadow banking: the transformation of risky assets into securities that are money-like in quiet times but become illiquid when uncertainty spikes. Shadow banking economizes on scarce collateral, expanding liquidity provision in booms, boosting asset prices and...

We build a macroeconomic model that centers on liquidity transformation in the financial sector. Intermediaries maximize liquidity creation by issuing securities that are money-like in normal times but become illiquid in a crash when collateral is scarce. We call this process shadow banking. A...

Introduction -- "Too Clubby to Fail": Wall Street Banks Win, Thrifts and Community Banks Lose -- Increased Risk Taking Due to Deregulation -- Deregulation, Politics, and Criminal Prosecutions -- The Four Major Waves of Change in the 1990s That -- Laid the Groundwork for the 2008 Financial Crisis...