Leverage

Broken promises?

This episode is about the world's growing dependence on debt financing and current challenges to the world economy. The promise once made that deeper and larger financial markets would make our economies more stable did not hold true. What happened instead? What is meant by the paradox of stabilisation policies and central bank safety nets? What can history teach us about risks and structural matters in the financial system? Do we need a re-assessment of the Great Financial Crisis? And if so, should we look towards psychology for answers rather than maths?

Moritz Schularick (Bonn, Paris) & Carmen Hofmann (eabh)

discuss financial leverage, fragility, central banks' balance sheets and new economic thinking.