A timely, broadly revisionist, essential book by one of our foremost economic observers takes down one of the most cherished tenets of contemporary financial thinking: that spending less, refusing to forgive debt, and shrinking government--"austerity"--is a solution to the current economic...

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- An Accident? -- This Book -- Financial Regulation Matters -- Some Final Introductory Remarks -- Road Map -- Chapter 2. Regulating Finance Is Hard to Do -- Introduction -- Shareholders versus Debt Holders: The Essence...

November 1999 - Estimating the likely fiscal costs of future banking crises requires information about the size and composition of the banks' balance sheets and expert assessments about the accuracy of the accounting data and about certain short-term risks. There is constant demand for an...