A Great Deal of Ruin

James Gerber is a Professor of Economics, Emeritus at San Diego State University. He is the author of International Economics (2018), a best-selling textbook now in its 7th edition, and numerous works on US-Mexico economic relations, including Fifty Years of Change on the US-Mexico Border: Growth, Development, and Quality of Life (with Joan Anderson, 2008) which won the Association of Borderlands Studies Book Award.

• Introduction; Part I. Financial Crises: 1. Financial crises: categories and risk factors; 2. Growth, globalization, and financial crises; Part II. Five Case Studies: 3. The Great Depression, 1929–1939; 4. The Latin American Debt Crisis, 1982–1989; 5. The Asian Crisis, 1997–1999; 6. The Subprime Crisis in the United States; 7. The financial crisis in Europe; Part III. Lessons: 8. Markets do not self-regulate; 9. Shadow banks are banks; 10. Banks need more capital, less debt; 11. Monetary policy does not always work; 12. Fiscal multipliers are larger than expected; 13. Monetary integration requires fiscal integration; 14. Open capital markets can be dangerous; 15. Not all debt is created equal; Conclusion.

'This book provides an excellent overview of the subject of financial crises: their definitions, causes and losses. It surveys the salient serious financial crises of the post World War II era. It will be of great value to students of financial history.' Michael Bordo, Board of Governors Professor of Economics, Rutgers University