Mark Copelovitch is Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He is author of The International Monetary Fund in the Global Economy: Banks, Bonds, and Bailouts. David A. Singer is Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is author of Regulating Capital: Setting Standards for the International Financial System.

• 1. The politics and economics of financial instability; 2. Banking crises, capital flows, and financial market structure; 3. Capital inflows, market structure, and banking crises: empirical evidence; 4. O Canada? Unraveling the mystery of Canadian bank stability; 5. Finanzplatz Deutschland: German bank stability and its decline; 6. Policy responses: what to do (and not to do) about financial instability.

'This book is really interesting, and potentially very important for our understanding of crises and for public policy. Copelovitch and Singer advance a thesis that is quite different, and considerably more subtle, than the standard accounts of why legislators tolerate fragile financial systems. This survives its own tests. I hope others pick up the challenge.' Paul Tucker, Harvard University