It is All Your Fault

The world is experiencing a financial crisis of historic proportions. It seems only natural to look for the causes. Around the world, including in the United States, many blame America for the financial crisis. Even the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose economy and financial system share sufficient characteristics with the US as to render meaningful the concept of Anglo-American capitalism, singled out the United States as an important source of what he called “irresponsibility”.

Summary of Key Points from BOE Financial Stability Report

The Bank of England's Financial Stability Report offers a timely assessment of the losses on key financial assets being experienced by the UK, US and euro-zone. Between the three areas, the losses today are around $2.8 trillion. In local currency terms, the losses of each center have roughly doubled in the past six months.

Crisis Temperature Readings Mixed

There are mixed signals emanating from the money markets. On one hand short-term interbank rates have eased. On the other hand rates remain high. Similarly while some unsecured interbank lending is being reported, it seems the size remains small and limited to a handful of participants.

What Next?

Officials have taken huge measures to ease the money market strain. And yet inter-bank rates remain elevated at levels that continue to threaten the broader economy. What else can officials do?

Anatomy of Crises

Over the least several decades, economists have generally focused on growth. It became unfashionable to study crises. This will likely change going forward.

What Happened to Free Markets?

A cry can be heard in the canyons of Wall Street and the winding roads of the City: “Capitalism is over. Free markets are dead.” And good riddance, smirked French President Sarkozy and German Finance Minister Steinbruck, Anglo-American financial supremacy is over. Joining them was a cackle from the UN session, where many of the broadsides against globalization were thinly veiled criticisms of Anglo-American capitalism.