The Library

Hot Topics: Financial Crisis and Bailout

Selected Video

Stanford, GSB Professors Debate Bailout Plan. 9/25/08
Faculty panel discussion runs the gamut from how the U.S. got into this mess, how this crisis fits in with past credit crises, and whether the financial sector is really sufficiently “different’’ than the rest of the economy to warrant a $700 billion rescue courtesy of the American taxpayer.

Selected articles

Due to contractual arrangements, access to some articles may be restricted to the Stanford community, and subscribers of the "Library Databases" offered through the GSB Alumni's Lifelong Learning Program. Inclusion below does not imply University endorsement of the ideas expressed.

U.S. Banks Tally Their Exposure to Europe’s Debt Maelstrom. New York Times, 1/29/12
Five large American banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, have more than $80 billion of exposure to Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece, the most economically stressed nations in the euro currency zone, according to a New York Times analysis of the banks’ financial disclosures.
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Why banks need (way) more capital. Reuters, 12/14/11
The mantra that regulation is holding back the U.S. economic recovery is playing into Wall Street’s efforts to prevent significant reforms of the financial industry in the wake two major crises – one of which continues to rage in the heart of Europe.
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Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress. Bloomberg, 11/27/11
The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.
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Analysis: U.S. bailout manuals handy if Europe crisis widens. Reuters, 11/6/11
As the European debt crisis edges closer to a break up of the euro zone, financial regulators may be reaching for emergency manuals that have gathered little dust since the last crisis.
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Constraints on Central Banks Leave Markets Adrift. New York Times, 9/21/11
They called it the “Greenspan put,” and it reassured a generation of traders. If economic storms were gathering, the top central banks — most important the Federal Reserve, then led by Alan Greenspan — could and would step in to prevent disaster.
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Echoes of 2008 crisis met with dull bailout tools. Reuters, 8/9/11
Extreme market volatility has sparked comparisons to the 2008 global credit crisis, but Washington's ability to help out weak financial firms is dramatically different.
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Higher Reserves Proposed for ‘Too Big to Fail’ Banks. New York Times, 6/25/11
After nearly two years of political jousting, a panel of global regulators said on Saturday that banks deemed too big to fail would have to set aside an additional cushion of capital reserves in what is the centerpiece of their efforts to avoid a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.
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Professor Anat Admati Named to FDIC Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee. Stanford GSB News, 6/6/11
Stanford Business School finance faculty member Anat Admati has been appointed to the FDIC Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee to provide advice and recommendations on a broad range of issues related to Congress' Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
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Financial Crisis Report Finds Conflicts and Recklessness. New York Times, 4/13/11
A voluminous report on the financial crisis by the United States Senate — citing internal documents and private communications of bank executives, regulators, credit ratings agencies and investors — describes business practices that were rife with conflicts during the mortgage mania and reckless activities that were ignored inside the banks and among their federal regulators.
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FDIC's Tab For Failed U.S. Banks Nears $9 Billion. WSJ, 3/17/11
U.S. banking regulators have paid out nearly $9 billion to cover losses on loans and other assets at 165 failed institutions that were sold to stronger companies during the financial crisis.
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An End to the Quick Fixes. Hoover Digest, 1/12/11
America’s financial crisis, deep recession, and anemic recovery have been driven largely by economic policies that have deviated from proven, fact-based principles. To return to prosperity, we must get back to these principles.
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Fed Documents Breadth of Emergency Measures. New York Times, 12/1/10
As financial markets shuddered and then nearly imploded in 2008, the Federal Reserve opened its vault to the world on a scope much wider and deeper than previously disclosed.
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Bailout Loss Estimated at $29 Billion. New York Times, 10/5/10
The Treasury Department expects to lose $29 billion on the federal bailouts stemming from the financial crisis, with most of the losses in its housing finance program and the auto rescue.
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Regulators Back New Bank Rules to Avert Crises. New York Times, 8/12/10
The world’s top bank regulators agreed Sunday on far-reaching new rules intended to make the global banking industry safer and protect international economies from future financial disasters.
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U.S. Bailout Funds Saved European Banks -- Without Much Transatlantic Reciprocity. The European Institute, 8/2010
When the U.S. government led a bailout program of $700 billion in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the money was generally described as bailout funds for U.S. banks and other major financial institutions. But in fact, substantial amounts went to foreign banks.
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After Crisis, Show of Power From JPMorgan. New York Times, 7/14/10
Jamie Dimon is not the modern-day John Pierpont Morgan. He is not the new king of Wall Street, and he’s certainly not President Obama’s BBF (best banker friend).
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The Dodd-Frank Financial Fiasco. WSJ, 7/1/10
An Op-ed article written by Stanford Prof. John B. Taylor regarding the Dodd-Frank reform bill.
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Panel Assails A.I.G. Bailout for Distorting Market. New York Times, 6/10/10
The Congressional Oversight Panel lambasted the government’s decision to rescue American International Group in September 2008, saying the bailout continues to have “a poisonous effect on the marketplace.”
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Stanford Professors Assess Landmark SEC-Goldman Suit and Underscore Need for Better Regulation of Financial Sector. Stanford GSB News, 4/2010
Two Stanford experts on the finance industry, Prof. Darrell Duffie and Prof. Joseph Grundfest, distinguished between ethical and legal issues during a public analysis of the Securities and Exchange Commission's lawsuit against Goldman Sachs' allegedly fraudulent Abacus deal. Both came down in favor of stiffer regulation of derivative markets.
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Emerging market countries and the crisis: How have they coped? Vox, 4/30/10
This column presents evidence that countries that improved their policy fundamentals and reduced their vulnerabilities in the pre-crisis period generally came out ahead during the crisis.
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Financial Debate Renews Scrutiny on Banks’ Size. New York Times, 4/20/10
One question has vexed the Obama administration and Congress since the start of the financial crisis: how to prevent big bank bailouts.
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Light At the End of the Bailout Tunnel. Wall Street Journal, 4/12/10
The U.S. government's rescue of wobbly companies and financial markets is starting to look far less expensive or long-lasting than once feared.
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Lehman’s Demise, Dissected. New York Times, 3/18/10
What if the biggest rewards on Wall Street went to those who thwarted dangerous and excessive risk-taking instead of to those who enabled, approved or simply ignored it?
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Battle Over the Bailout. New York Times, 2/11/10
THE critical lawsuit challenging that mystery of finance known as the Bailout started, oddly enough, with a casual newsroom chat.
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Investors Fear Europe’s Woes May Extend Global Slump. New York Times, 2/4/10
Just as America’s recession begins to ebb, trouble is brewing in Europe that may prolong a downturn on the Continent and ricochet through the global economy as it struggles toward a recovery.
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New Bank Rules Sink Stocks. WSJ, 1/21/10
President Barack Obama proposed new limits on the size and activities of the nation's largest banks, pushing a more muscular approach toward regulation that yanked down bank stocks and raised the stakes in his campaign to show he's tough on Wall Street.
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Fed Missed This Bubble. Will It See a New One? New York Times, 1/5/10
If only we’d had more power, we could have kept the financial crisis from getting so bad.
That has been the position of Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, and other regulators.
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Citi Is Eager to Pay Back Bailout Aid. New York Times, 12/9/09
A year after accepting two taxpayer bailouts, Citigroup is racing to raise billions of dollars in the stock market to repay the aid, a crucial step in freeing itself from Washington’s grip.
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Trauma Surgeon of Wall Street. New York Times, 11/13/09
Mr. Cohen, the chairman of Sullivan & Cromwell and the man who, aside from government officials like Henry M. Paulson Jr., Ben S. Bernanke and Timothy F. Geithner, played perhaps the largest role of all in the gruesome doings of the Wall Street bailout last year.
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Trying to Rein In ‘Too Big to Fail’ Institutions. New York Times, 10/25/09
Congress and the Obama administration are about to take up one of the most fundamental issues stemming from the near collapse of the financial system last year — how to deal with institutions that are so big that the government has no choice but to rescue them when they get in trouble.
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Debt-Market Paralysis Deepens Credit Drought. New York Times, 10/6/09
A year after Washington rescued the big names of American finance, it’s still hard to get a loan. But the problem isn’t just tight-fisted banks.
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Geithner Says Bailout Programs Are Shrinking. New York Times, 9/10/09
One year after the federal government began the biggest financial bailout in history, President Obama’s top economic advisers say the banking system has regained enough health to begin removing the government’s backstops.
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Market crisis 'will happen again'. BBC News, 9/8/09
The world will suffer another financial crisis, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan has told the BBC.
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U.S. banks play catch-up on hiring effort. Reuters, 8/10/09
U.S. banks, which have cut thousands of jobs during the two-year-old financial crisis, are suddenly racing to fill empty seats to make the most of soaring stock markets and narrowing credit spreads.
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Two Giants Emerge From Wall Street Ruins. New York Times, 7/16/09
A new order is emerging on Wall Street after the worst crisis since the Great Depression — one in which just a couple of victors are starting to tower over the handful of financial titans that used to dominate the industry.
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The Descent of Finance. Harvard Business Review, July/Aug 2009
When today’s great crisis ends, the U.S. financial system will be a shadow of its former self, but America will be stronger than ever. History shows that money and power don’t always go hand in hand.
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Summers Sees Dramatic Shift With Banking Reforms. NPR, 6/18/09
Summers, the director of President Obama's National Economic Council, defends the president's financial regulatory reform plan, saying it will result in a "very different financial industry."
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10 Large Banks Allowed to Exit U.S. Aid Program. New York Times, 6/9/09
The Obama administration marked a major milestone in its bank rescue effort — its decision on Tuesday to let 10 big banks repay federal aid — as policy makers and industry executives focused on the challenges still before them.
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As Deficits Mount, Fed Chief Calls for a Path to Fiscal Balance. New York Times, 6/3/09
Ben S. Bernanke, said on Wednesday that the United States needed to develop a plan to restore fiscal balance, even as the government builds huge budget deficits as it tries to spend its way out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
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Page updated by: Nora Richardson

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