In 2007 the world faced one of the biggest financial crises ever. It was the third important financial crisis in the last 12 years. Spillovers to the real economy and moral hazard behaviour of carpetbaggers resulted in enormous pressure on worldwide political institutions to approve a more...

Money illusion in economic theory has been an assumption rejected for academic economists for quite some time. However, with the gradual diffusion of behavioural economics based on experimental research this has changed. Now, it has become a respected fact to accept money illusion as a stylized...

The deepening financial liberalisation and the tightening of financial integration globally have made it more challenging to manage macroeconomic policies in general, and to contain the spread of financial turbulence in particular. The financial sector has been shown to be inherently...

We compare the out-of-sample forecasting accuracy of the time-varying hazard model developed by Shumway (2001) and the one-period probit model used by Cole and Gunther (1998). Using data on U.S. bank failures from 1985 – 1992, we find that, from an econometric perspective, the hazard model is...

The present paper reviews the causes that led to the financial crisis. Unlike other interpretations, this paper does not place main significance on a single source or on a set of causes. I consider all major standpoints highlighted by research and media prior, during and after the financial...

The present paper reviews the causes that led to the financial crisis. Unlike other interpretations, this paper does not place main significance on a single source or on a set of causes. I consider all major standpoints highlighted by research and media prior, during and after the financial...

Using a signal extraction framework and looking at OECD countries over a 30 year period this paper attempts to identify a number of variables significant in predicting near-crises as a pre-cursor to full-fledged crises. These include growth in pension assets as an indicator for the development...

If the Stock Market crashes, the Federal Reserve System (the Fed) ought to open the Discount Window to Main Street, by making 1. loans only for the creation of real wealth; 2. loans at cost; 3. loans to benefit as large a number of people as possible by issuing loans to individual entrepreneurs,...

Consistent with the Minsky hypothesis and the “volatility paradox” (Brunnermeier and Sannikov, 2014), recent empirical evidence suggests that financial crises tend to follow prolonged periods of financial stability and investor optimism. But does financial tranquility always call for more...

The purpose of this paper is to provide an outline of the success and draw backs of the Federal Reserve and the consequent impact on financial markets. A review of the relevant literature from Hubbard (2008) and Dowd & Hutchinson (2010) will provide insights into the success and failures of the...