This book argues that the 2007 08 financial crisis revealed fundamental flaws in how the
financial sector had evolved over the previous three decades. While access to financial
services has improved the total stock of debt in the global economy has risen to more than
twice the size of global GDP. Financial services now play a far bigger role in all economies
developed and developing than in the 1960s. This development has produced few if any
worthwhile benefits. The book concludes that the largely deregulated financial sector needs to
be radically reformed.The first of these reforms would be to establish the pre-eminence of the
public interest in how financial services operate. The second would involve breaking up
financial institutions that have become much too big. Third the phenomenon of financialization
needs to be regulated and controlled. Finally all countries need to work- both nationally and
internationally- towards a more democratized more robust andless laissez faire system of
socially progressive financial sector regulation to make it subservient to the needs of society
rather than the other way round. This Palgrave Pivot will be of interest to economists
financiers and banking specialists interested in an informed debate on the causes and
consequences of the 2007 2008 financial crisis.
