This unique and fascinating book illustrates that the 'credit crunch' and the ensuing financial and economic crisis of 2007-2009 did not only strike hard at the economy in the Western world, but also at its policymakers, at economics as a scientific discipline and, more specifically, at the...

Introduction -- The sovereign-banks Nexus : an economic analysis -- The European sovereign debt crisis as a source of case studies -- An economic analysis of policy options -- Closing the first channel of contagion from banks to sovereigns : Hitherto European actions and their critique --...