Money in the Great Recession by Tim Congdon

Money in the Great Recession by Tim Congdon

No issue is more fundamental in contemporary macroeconomics than identifying the causes of the recent Great Recession. The standard view is that the banks were to blame because they took on too much risk, 'went bust' and had to be bailed out by governments. However very few banks actually had losses in excess of their capital. The counter-argument presented in this stimulating new book is that the Great Recession was in fact caused by a collapse in the rate of change of the quantity of money. This was the result of a mistimed and inappropriate tightening of banks' capital regulations, which had vicious deflationary consequences at just the wrong point in the business cycle. Central bankers and financial regulators made serious mistakes. The book's argument echoes that on the causes of the Great Depression made by Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz in their classic book A Monetary History of the United States. Offering an alternative monetary explanation of the Great Recession, this book is essential reading for all economists working in macroeconomics and monetary economics. It will also appeal to those interested in the wider public policy debates arising from the crisis and its aftermath. Contributors include: P. Booth, J.E. Castañeda, T. Congdon, C. Goodhart, S. Hanke, D. Laidler, A. Ridley, R. Skidelsky, R. Thomas

'Tim Congdon has brought together a thorough coverage of the analysis, by leading academic and market economists, of the causes of the recent Great RecessionThe focus is the key roles that money and financial regulation played in the recession and continue to play in the weak recovery. This is an important book that policymakers, economists, and others should read.' --Forrest Capie, Cass Business School, City University London, UK

'The financial crisis: central bankers were the heroes, and bankers were the villains - right? Wrong, totally. To understand why, read this book, with contributions from many leading economists who study money and central banks. As Tim Congdon, the editor, points out, central bankers permitted much too fast a growth in the money supply in the run-up to the crisis. The banks had every incentive to extend too much credit. The same central bankers then allowed the money supply growth rate to crash when the crisis hit. During and after the crisis, they brought in Draconian regulations that damaged the recovery process by increasing the cost of credit creation, so sandbagging money supply growth. It is an inglorious tale. Central bankers are not godlike technocrats, but simply civil servants, whose behaviour needs to be understood in terms of flawed incentives, incentives that can generate terrible outcomes. They - like governments - need to be governed by rules that keep the economy on track without inflation.' --Patrick Minford, Cardiff University, UK

Edited by Tim Congdon, CBE, Chairman, Institute of International Monetary Research and Professor, University of Buckingham, UK

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781784717827
ISBN 10	1784717827
Title	Money in the Great Recession
Author	Tim Congdon
Series	Buckingham Studies In Money Banking And Central Banking
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
Year published	2017-06-30
Number of pages	288
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.