Financial alchemy in crisis : the great liquidity illusion / Anastasia Nesvetailova.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nesvetailova, Anastasia.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2009.

Liquidity (Economics).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (224 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London : Pluto Press ; New York : Distributed in the United States by Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In July 2007, the combination of a seemingly unstoppable rise in house prices and bullish banks swimming in liquidity meant that almost anyone could get a mortgage in the UK or US. Little more than a month later the supply of credit dried up practically overnight, leaving the world wondering how bank liquidity could suddenly vanish.In Financial Alchemy, Anastasia Nesvetailova shows that this liquidity never actually existed. The rise of sophisticated financial instruments created what appeared to be an abundance of liquid funds but was in fact a credit pyramid. As soon as house prices stopped rising the reality was exposed. Nesvetailova's bold and radical analysis explains why the credit crisis was an inevitable consequence of entrusting the world economy to financiers who believe that they can 'create' money and wealth.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Abbreviations

Acknowledgements

Introduction: The End of a Great Illusion

'Liquidity' and the Crisis of Invented Money

Liquidity Illusion and the Global Credit Crunch

1. The Stages of the Meltdown

The Prelude: The American Sub-Prime Crisis

From Sub-Prime Crisis to the Global Credit Crunch

From Global Credit Crunch to Global Recession

2. The Tale of Northern Rock:Between Financial Innovationand Fraud

The Controversy Over Financial Innovation

Offshore: The Uses and Abuses of SPVs

Northern Rock and Granite

3. How the Crisis HasBeen Understood

Ex-Ante and Ex-Post Visions of the Credit Crunch

Structural Theories of the Credit Crunch

Cyclical Theories of the Crisis

4. Some Uncomfortable Puzzlesof the Credit Crunch

Dismissed: The Warning Signs and the Whistleblowers

Ponzi Capitalism: A Crisis of Fraud?

5. 2002-7: The Three Pillarsof the Liquidity Illusion

Liquidity and the Paradigm of Self-Regulating Credit

Playing with Debt - Together. Liquidity as a'State of Mind'

The Alchemists: Turning Bad Debts into 'Money'

6. After the Meltdown: Rewritingthe Rules of Global Finance?

The Three Stages of the Policy Response

The Crisis and Geopolitics: A New Special Relationship?

Conceptual Dilemmas and Traps

Conclusion: A Very Mundane Crisis

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781849645409

184964540X

OCLC:

730515003