From Financial Crisis to Global Recovery

Padma Desai is the Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of Comparative Economic Systems and director of the Center for Transition Economies at Columbia University. She has served as president of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies and as advisor to the Russian Finance Ministry for the U.S. Treasury. She is the author of Conversations on Russia and Financial Crisis, Contagion, and Containment: From Asia to Argentina.

There are an abundance of books by journalists providing an insider's chronology of events. Yet there are few books that step back and provide an analytical perspective on the financial meltdown and the Great Recession. That is the great service Padma Desai provides in this book. -- Douglas A. Irwin, Dartmouth College, author of Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression Padma Desai provides a very wise and thoughtful account of the origins of the financial crisis, the prospect and policies for recovery, and the future of national and international economic management. She also draws very effectively on her great experience and distinction as a scholar of economic transformation, economic history, and international economics. -- Nicholas Stern, London School of Economics and former chief economist of the World Bank Insightful, far-ranging, and complete, yet still manages to be a lot of fun to read. -- Robert J. Shiller, Yale University Padma Desai explains the World Financial Crisis in human terms. In every chapter she associates the abstract principles of economics with stories about real people in real situations. These stories focus on who was making what decisions and when and why they were made. It is what we need to understand the crisis. -- George A. Akerlof, University of California, Berkeley, and Nobel Laureate in Economics Students keep asking me: where can I read about the financial crisis and what we are-or are not-doing about it? Without putting together a reading list of twenty to thirty items, there aren't many good answers. Padma Desai's new book, which is at once comprehensive and brief, remedies that. -- Alan S. Blinder, Princeton University, former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve Padma Desai provides a wide-ranging analysis of the economic problems of the past decade and the prospects for the future of the global economy. She brings the unique perspective of someone who has taught in the United States for decades but also is deeply rooted in her native India and the developments in the Soviet Union and Russia, the focus of her academic research. -- Martin Feldstein, Harvard University, President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research and former chief economic advisor to President Reagan Padma Desai explains in a friendly manner how a systematic breakdown of factors led to the current recession The Southampton Press

• Preface 1. Financial Crisis Origin 2. Banking Sector Stress Tests: United States Versus the European Union 3. Is the U.S. Economy on the Mend? 4. Global Recovery Prospects: North America and Europe, Asia, and South America 5. Hedge Funds and Derivatives, Credit Default Swaps, and Rating Agencies 6. U.S. and EU Regulatory Proposals: How Strict? How Cooperative? 7. The Dollar's Future as a Reserve Currency 8. The Great Depression and the Current Financial Crisis 9. The Future of American Capitalism Notes Index