This book will be of interest to advanced students looking for an even-handed overview of alternative theories of financial disturbances; academics who need a reference on the historical interrelationships of the literature in the field; and professionals who want to understand how the tools and concepts they use daily have emerged through time and whether there are forgotten lessons to be heeded. Susan K. Schroeder, Review of Political Economy Financial markets have an aura of disturbing instability. In this history of the thought of earlier economists who have studied the processes of finance, Jan Toporowski takes us on a fascinating journey to explore how they saw the impact of finance on the real economy. Not one for formal models, nor for rational expectations, Jan [Toporowski] values historical experience and the insights and experience of earlier great thinkers. Charles A.E. Goodhart, CBE, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Jan Toporowski s Theories of Financial Disturbance is a tour de force. With his substantial knowledge of financial markets, his deep conceptual understanding of relevant concepts and his exhaustive reading of the essential literature, he is ideally placed to tell an absorbing narrative of, as he writes, critical theories of finance from Adam Smith to the present days and he has. In a world in which finance and industrial and commercial capital are so out of kilter with one another, Toporowski s lucid wisdom is required reading. G.C. Harcourt, University of Cambridge, Jesus College, Cambridge, UK and University of Adelaide, Australia Theories of Financial Disturbance examines how the operations of market-driven finance may initiate and transmit disturbances to the economy at large, by looking in detail at how various economists envisaged such disturbances occurring. This book is more than just a study in the history of economic thought it illustrates how economic debate focuses upon financial disturbance at times of financial instability, and then conveniently discards critical views when such instability recedes. Jan Toporowski looks at the development of critical theories from the views of Adam Smith and François Quesnay, and their reflection in recent new Keynesian ideas of Joseph Stiglitz and Ben Bernanke, through credit cycles in Alfred Marshall and Ralph Hawtrey, to the financial theories of Thorstein Veblen and Irving Fisher. Also studied are the theories of John Kenneth Galbraith, Michal Kalecki, John Maynard Keynes, Charles Kindleberger, Rosa Luxemburg, Hyman P. Minsky, Robert Shiller and Josef Steindl. Not least among the original features of this book are a discussion of Quesnay s attitude towards interest, and a chapter devoted to the work of the Polish monetary economist Marek Breit, whose work inspired Kalecki. Jan Toporowski s fascinating work will find its audience in academics of finance and financial economics, bankers, financiers and policy makers concerned with financial stability as well as anyone looking for arguments on the imperfect functioning of finance.

Economic Disturbances and Equilibrium in an Integrated Global Economy: Investment Insights and Policy Analysis helps readers develop a framework for analyzing economic events and make better, more consistent decisions. Victor Canto presents the theoretical building blocks that make up the overall framework, then expands the framework to tackle more complex problems, applying additional considerations to actual policy or investment issues. Drawing upon the most recent trends in monetary policy and international economics, the book offers sustained direct engagement with the main research question and makes innovative use of the simple concepts of supply and demand to illuminate modern finance literature. The book succeeds by highlighting the often-forgotten interconnectedness of different economic processes. How do we respond to a change in policy or an economic shock? Are all the expected changes to the general equilibrium consistent with each other? - Helps readers build an intellectual framework that enables them to interpret articles in the financial press and policy decisions in a logical and consistent manner - Differs from other books by eschewing partial equilibria analyses and instead providing a general equilibrium perspective useful for investors and policy makers - Provides supporting data on a freely-accessible website so readers can test and replicate results

In this monograph, we review three branches of theoretical literature on financial crises. The first deals with banking crises originating from coordination failures among bank creditors. The second deals with frictions in credit and interbank markets due to problems of moral hazard and adverse selection. The third deals with currency crises. We discuss the evolutions of these branches in the literature, and how they have been integrated recently to explain the turmoil in the world economy during the East Asian crises and in the last few years. We discuss the relation of the models to the empirical evidence and their ability to guide policies to avoid or mitigate future crises.

Warnings of the threat of an impending financial crisis are not new, but do we really know what constitutes an actual episode of crisis and how, once begun, it can be prevented from escalating into a full-blown economic collapse? Using both historical and contemporary episodes of breakdowns in financial trade, contributors to this volume draw insights from theory and empirical data, from the experience of closed and open economies worldwide, and from detailed case studies. They explore the susceptibility of American corporations to economic downturns; the origins of banking panics; and the behavior of financial markets during periods of crisis. Sever papers specifically address the current thrift crisis—including a detailed analysis of the over 500 FSLIC-insured thrifts in the southeast—and seriously challenge the value of recent measures aimed at preventing future collapse in that industry. Government economists and policy makers, scholars of industry and banking, and many in the business community will find these timely papers an invaluable reference.

Introduction to financial analysis; Principles of financial behavior; Interrelation of financial & real economic behavior; Innovations in financial assets & financial markets; Determination of financial assets prices & yields; Money & banking; Monetary & nonmonetary financial intermediation; Dynamics of monetary disturbance.