Acknowledgements -- About the authors -- Introduction / Stephen Balch and Benjamin Powell -- Crisis and government power -- Crisis without leviathan? / Robert Higgs -- The rule of law during times of economic crisis / Todd Zywicki -- Fiscal crisis -- Fiscal crisis as a quality of progressivist...

During the financial crisis, life insurers sold long-term policies at deep discounts relative to actuarial value. The average markup was as low as -19 percent for annuities and -57 percent for life insurance. This extraordinary pricing behavior was due to financial and product market frictions,...