In order to understand the sources of profits or monetary profits of capitalists and firms, the author examines the phrase of Marx: 'Die Gesamtklasse der Kapitalisten kann nichts aus der Zirkulation herausziehen, was nicht vorher hineingeworfen war.' (The class of capitalists cannot extract from...

Das Vertrauen der Verbraucher in die Finanzdienstleistungsbranche hat in den letzten Jahren stark abgenommen und befindet sich auf einem Tiefpunkt. Schuld an dieser Situation sind oftmals die Strukturen der verkaufsorientierten Finanzberatung. Ein häufig genanntes Problem in diesem Zusammenhang...

This essay looks at the bidirectional relationship between financial history and financial economics. It begins by giving a brief history of financial economics by outlining the main topics of interest to financial economists. It then documents and explains the increasing influence of financial...

The Basel III framework represents the response to the regulation deficits of the financial cri-sis and the immense losses of many banks in years 2007/2008. The aim of the framework is to increase the level of capital in financial institutions and to improve the loss absorption and risk coverage...

A review essay of Roman Frydman & Michael D. Goldberg's Beyond Mechanical Markets: Asset Price Swings, Risk, and the Role of the State.

We provide an axiomatic characterization of the measure of riskiness of gambles (risky assets) introduced by Foster and Hart (2009). The axioms are based on the concept of "wealth requirement."

Four years after the introduction of the euro, this paper provides an overview of the current structure and integration of the euro area financial systems and related policy initiatives. We first compare the euro area financial structure with that of the United States and Japan. Using new and...

This paper reviews the literature on the finance-growth nexus within a neoclassical growth framework, placing an emphasis on the policy implications in the current European environment, that has placed financial reforms high on the policy Agenda. While more research is needed to establish...

This paper studies the relative pricing of euro area sovereign CDS and the underlying government bonds. Our sample comprises weekly CDS and bond spreads of ten euro area countries for the period from January 2006 to June 2010. We first compare the determinants of CDS spreads and bond spreads and...

The extended period of limited growth experienced until recently in many European countries raises the issue as to which policies could be most effective in improving their economic performance. This paper argues that further financial sector reforms may be a valuable complement to ongoing...