" ... Four volumes of selections from the first 20 years of Economic reform, the print publication of the Committee for Monetary and Economic Reform."--V. 2, p. ix.

The lingering effects of the economic crisis are still visible—this shows a clear need to improve our understanding of financial crises. This book surveys a wide range of crises, including banking, balance of payments, and sovereign debt crises. It begins with an overview of the various types of crises and introduces a comprehensive database of crises. Broad lessons on crisis prevention and management, as well as the short-term economic effects of crises, recessions, and recoveries, are discussed.

Standing apart from the swollen stream of writing dealing with financial crises, this much-needed book makes a legal case for enforcement of legal accountability for financial crises and for providing justice for the inestimable and untold human suffering caused by Washington and Wall Street. The extraordinarily detailed analysis comes with the authority of a widely experienced and internationally respected banking and finance lawyer. The book’s driving forces may be summarized as follows: it establishes that persistent and progressive money debasement is at the heart of all serious systemic financial crises; it establishes that the crisis in 2008 was not only simply immoral or wrong but also illegal, the result of intentional violation of the foundational legal requirements of honest, safe, and sound money and banking; it establishes that Washington and Wall Street have intentionally manipulated asset values and liquidity characteristics through proliferation of ineffective banking law and regulation magnified by the rise of structured finance and shadow banking. Basing its analysis on numerous case studies and illustrations, this book enables readers to untangle the web of false narratives wrought by Washington and Wall Street to obscure and misdirect any clear understanding of how fundamental civil, legal and constitutional rights are undermined. Designed to empower readers to effect meaningful legal action against money manipulation and debasement for the benefit of financial elites, this book is essential reading for banking lawyers, bankers, securities firms, lobbyists, government regulators and supervisory institutions. It is also sure to be welcomed by academics in finance and securities law.

Looks at the origins and consequences of seminal financial crises throughout history, combining contemporary texts from nineteen financial disasters between 1763 and 1994, with academic interpretations of the major causes and consequences of each crisis. These documents contain evaluations of the underlying causes of the various crises.

Consider these phenomena: Savers at surplus countries are often penalized by astronomical consumer prices, while spenders at debtor countries enjoy bargain basement prices; Silicon Valley continues to be the global leader in R&D and innovation despite chaos in public finance; and; Surplus countries worry about holding potentially worthless IOUs issued by elected debtor governments. In this book, Professor Lee has tried to better understand sovereign wealth management in the context of saver and debtor countries, by presenting a unified model that can explain these observed phenomena. His attempt is a clear departure from traditional theories, in which these observations would be considered aberrations from standard assumptions. Although no model is perfect, this new framework can be useful to explain why, for example, it will be bad economic news for all if saver countries use their public surpluses to hoard food and fuel. This accessible book is built from a scholarly paper presented by Professor Lee at the venerable Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association.