The Consequences of the Global Financial Crisis: The Rhetoric of Reform and Regulation

The Global Financial Crisis is the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression, and although many have explored its causes, relatively few have focused on its consequences. Unlike earlier crises, no new paradigm seems yet to have come forward to challenge existing ways of thinking and neo-liberalism has emerged relatively unscathed. This crisis, characterized by a remarkable policy stability, has lacked a coherent and innovative intellectual response. This book, however, systematically explores the consequences of the crisis, focusing primarily on its impact on policy and politics. It asks how governments responded to the challenges that the crisis has posed, and the policy and political impact of the combination of both the Global Financial Crisis itself and these responses. It brings together leading academics to consider the divergent ways in which particular countries have responded to the crisis, including the US, the UK, China, Europe, and Scandinavia. The book also assesses attempts to develop global economic governance and to reform financial regulation, and looks critically at the role of credit rating agencies.