This publication could not be more timely. Little more than a decade after the global financial
crisis of 2008 governments are once again loosening the reins over financial markets. The
authors of this volume explain why that is a mistake and could invite yet another major crisis.
-Benjamin Cohen University of California Santa Barbara USA Leading political scientists from
several generations here offer historical depth as well as sensible suggestions about what
reforms are needed now. -John Kirton University of Toronto Canada and Co-founder of the G7
Research Group A valuable antidote to complacency for policy-makers scholars and students.
-Timothy J. Sinclair University of Warwick UK This book examines the long-term previously
underappreciated breakdowns in financial regulation that fed into the 2008 global financial
crash. While most related literature focuses on short-term factors such as the housing bubble
low interest rates the breakdown of credit rating services and the emergence of new financial
instruments the authors of this volume contend that the larger trends in finance which
continue today are most relevant to understanding the crash. Their analysis focuses on
regulatory capture moral hazard and the reflexive challenges of regulatory intervention in
order to demonstrate that financial regulation suffers from long-standing unaddressed and
fundamental weaknesses.
