"Debt Overhang and Capital Regulation"

Anat R. Admati, Peter M. DeMarzo, Martin F. Hellwig, and Paul Pfleiderer, March 23, 2012

Downloadable PDF of Article

• "Healthy Banking System is the Goal, not Profitable Banks," Text of Letter signed by 20 academics, Published in Financial Times, November 9, 2010.

Related Writings and Presentations by the Authors

Commentary and Letters 

• "Should Big Banks be Broken Up?," by Anat Admati, The Economist Debate, May 15, 2013 (PDF version)
• "Anat Admati and Robert Jenkins: Don't trust these bankers who want to raise the speed limit," by Anat Admati and Robert Jenkins, The Independent, March 15, 2013
• "The Great Bank Escape," by Anat Admati, Project Syndicate, December 31, 2012
• "What Obama should do now: Make the financial system safer," by Anat Admati, The Washington Post, November 9, 2012
• "Why the bank dividends are a bad idea," by Anat Admati, Reuters, March 14, 2012
• "More bank equity serves us all better," by Anat Admati and Neil Barofsky, published in Financial Times, March 6, 2012
• "Easing capital rules would lead banks away from vital lending," letter to the editor by Anat Admati, Financial Times, August 23, 2011
• "Greenspan's reasoning on 'excessive' equity is misleading," text of Letter to the Editor signed by 20 academics, Financial Times, August 2, 2011
• "Beware of Banks' Flawed Focus on Return on Equity," op ed by Anat Admati, New York Times Dealbook, July 25, 2011
• An Open Letter to JPMorgan Chase Board of Directors, by Anat Admati, in Thomson Reuters Risk Magazine and Huffington Post, June 14, 2011.
• 'Global 'Level-Playing-Field' Arguments are Invalid,' and 'Battle to Regulate Banks has just Begun,' by Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig, op ed in 'Martin Wolf's Economists' Forum' in June 7 2011 FT.com, and June 3 2011 Financial Times, respectively
• "Fed Runs Scared With Boost to Bank Dividends," by Anat R. Admati, Bloomberg, February 24, 2011
• "Only recapitalised banks should pay dividends," Letter from Anat Admati and other signators, Financial Times, Feb. 15, 2011.
• "Force Banks to Put America's Needs First," By Anat Admati, Op-Ed Piece, Financial Times, Jan. 20, 2011
• What Jamie Dimon Won't Tell You, by Anat Admati, Huffington Post, Dec. 5, 2010
• more commentary and letters by the authors

Presentations and Lectures

• "What is Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It," slide presentation by Anat Admati at the DIIS Conference, January 29, 2013 (Link to YouTube Video)
• "Reducing the Fragility of the Financial Sector: The Importance of Equity and Why it is Not Expensive," slide presentation by Paul Pfleiderer to the Norges Bank Macroprudential Regulation Workshop, November 29, 2012
•  "Bank Capital How Much is Enough?," slide presentation by Anat R. Admati, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago 48th Annual Conference on Bank Structure and Competition, May 10, 2012
• "The Challenge of DeLeveraging and Overhangs of Debt II: The Politics and Economics of Restructuring," Slides slide presentation by Anat Admati at the Institute for New Economic Thinking's (INET) Paradigm Lost Conference in Berlin, April 13, 2012
• "Debt Financing in the Domestic Financial Sector," testimony by Paul Pfleiderer to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection Subcommittee; August 3 2011
• "The False Tradeoff Between Economic Growth and Bank Capital," slide presentation by Anat Admati, Washington DC briefing, June 22 2011
• Fallacies, Irrelevant Facts, and Myths in the Discussion of Capital Regulation:Why Bank Equity is Not Expensive, by Anat R. Admati, Peter M. DeMarzo, Martin F. Hellwig, and Paul Pfleiderer, Stanford Finance Forum: Bank Capital and Liquidity, June 3, 2011
• more presentations and lectures by the authors

Policy Papers

• "Examining the Impact of the Proposed Rules to Implement Basel III Capital Standards," by Anat Admati, Testimony for hearing of Subcommittee on Financial Institution and Consumer Credit and Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity, November 29, 2012
• "Comments to the Federal Reserve," by Admati, Hellwig, DeMarzo, and Pfleiderer, April 30, 2012
• "Comments to the Federal Reserve", by Admati, Bair, Johnson, and Herring, March 30, 2012
• "Comments on the Implementation of the Volcker Rule," by Anat Admati and Paul Pfleiderer, submitted to federal regulators February 13, 2012
• "Good Banking Regulation Needs Clear Focus, Sensible Tools, and Political Will," by Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig, December 2011
• "Comments to the UK Independent Commission on Banking," by Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig, July 4, 2011
• 'Comments on Proposal to Ensure the Loss Absorbency of Regulatory Capital at the Point of Non-viability', Text prepared by Anat Admati for the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision, October, 2010.
• more policy papers by the authors

Academic and other Papers

• "Does Dept Discipline Bankers?: An Academic Myth about Bank Indebtedness," by Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig, February 10, 2013
• "On the Relevancy of Modigliani and Miller to Banking: A Parable and Some Observations," by Paul Pfleiderer, Stanford University
• "Liability Holding Companies," by Anat Admati, Peter Conti-Brown, Paul Pfleiderer, UCLA Law Review, forthcoming, 2012
• Capital Regulation after the Crisis: Business as Usual?" by Martin Hellwig, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany, July 2010
• more academic writing by the authors