Foreign bank lending has stopped growing since the global financial crisis. Changes in banks' business models, balance-sheet adjustments, as well as the tightening of banking regulations are potential drivers of this prolonged slowdown. The existing literature however suggests an opposite effect...

A Saturday Evening Post editorial of December 28, 1928, glowingly described American bankers as the “stewards of our whole intricate credit system.” Within a year the feelings of that esteemed journal's editors had changed considerably. Their emotional rollercoaster follows tracks similar to...