Global Economic News and Analysis
by Guest Author Jialan Wang, Voxeu In 2005, the US Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act raised the costs to households of filing for bankruptcy by 60%. While the law was designed to prevent abuse by wealthy debtors, this column presents evidence that the higher costs inhibit filings by financially distressed households who cannot …
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Could 2012 Surprise to the Upside? by Guest Author John Slater, Capital Matters In January we are trained to predict the likely course of the coming year and more often than not we get it wrong. This year virtually everyone has had the same prediction: “We’ll muddle along at around 2.5% growth unless something really …
by Guest Author Mark Roe, Project Syndicate and Harvard Law School CAMBRIDGE – Sometimes, we just don’t learn. After the financial crisis, the United States enacted the Dodd-Frank Act to overhaul American financial regulation, with the aim of reducing the risk of another financial meltdown. But it did nothing to reform “repo” lending – arguably …
by Elliott Morss Introduction In the midst of the Greek crisis, a report was issued last week by a watchdog government agency assessing how the Federal Reserve handled the A.I.G. crisis. Remember that one? At one point, the Feds had ponied up $182.3 billion to save A.I.G. And let’s put this in perspective: so far, …
Continue reading “A.I.G. and Greece: Comparing Bankruptcies”
My conclusion? If deleveraging is needed, stimulatory monetary and fiscal policies should accelerate the process.