Between Debt and the Devil

Adair Turner is chairman of the Institute for New Economic Thinking and the author of Economics after the Crisis.

• Acknowledgments ix Preface: The Crisis I Didn't See Coming xi Introduction: Too Important to Be Left to the Bankers 1 Part I Swollen Finance 17 1 The Utopia of Finance for All 19 2 Inefficient Financial Markets 34 Part II Dangerous Debt 49 3 Debt, Banks, and the Money They Create 51 4 Too Much of the Wrong Sort of Debt 61 5 Caught in the Debt Overhang Trap 74 6 Liberalization, Innovation, and the Credit Cycle on Steroids 88 7 Speculation, Inequality, and Unnecessary Credit 108 Part III Debt, Development, and Capital Flows 131 8 Debt and Development: The Merits and Dangers of Financial Repression 133 9 Too Much of the Wrong Sort of Capital Flow: Global and Eurozone Delusions 149 Part IVFixing the System 161 10 Irrelevant Bankers in an Unstable System 163 11 Fixing Fundamentals 175 12 Abolishing Banks, Taxing Debt Pollution, and Encouraging Equity 186 13 Managing the Quantity and Mix of Debt 195 Part VEscaping the Debt Overhang 211 14 Monetary Finance-Breaking the Taboo 213 15 Between Debt and the Devil-A Choice of Dangers 231 Epilogue: The Queen's Question and the Fatal Conceit 241 Notes 253 Bibliography 277 Index 289

One of The Independent's Best Economics Books of the Year Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Books of the Year Financial Times Best Economics Books of of the Year One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2015, chosen by Martin Wolf One of the Strategy+Business Best Business Books 2016 in Economy One of The Independent's Best Economics Books 2015 One of Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Books of 2015, chosen by Vitor Constancio "[Between Debt and the Devil] represents an important challenge to economic orthodoxy, which, as [Turner] rightly notes, has already failed us once."--John Cassidy, New Yorker "Extensively researched and well-written."--Edward Chancellor, Wall Street Journal "[A] remarkable new book."--Will Hutton, Observer "Lucid and forcefully-argued."--Peter Thal Larsen, Reuters Breakingviews "Turner offers a convincing account of the debt-fuelled global economic cycle of the last 15 years or so. I found myself skimming over large sections and nodding in agreement."--Erik Britton, Management Today "Turner is more than just another thinker merrily seeking to provoke his audience; he is an experienced British policymaker accustomed to weighing up the angles... [Between Debt and the Devil] is as good as it can be, an overdue challenge to a taboo against monetary finance held sacred for too long."--Giles Wilkes, Financial Times "Adair Turner, the former chairman of Britain's Financial Services Authority and described by The Economist as a man for all policy crises, upends financial orthodoxy in Between Debt and the Devil. He argues that nothing regulators have done thus far has addressed the fundamental underlying cause of financial instability... Turner's book is tightly argued and is packed with insights about the financial markets as well as the real economy."--Brenda Jubin, Investing.com "If developed economies fall back into recession, people may hear quite a bit more about Lord Turner's ideas."--Economist "This is an important book because Turner thinks clearly where much analysis has been fuzzy ... [a] stimulating book."--Ben Chu, The Independent "Adair Turner's Between Debt and the Devil: Money, Credit and Fixing Global Finance--out this month--joins a select group of books that provide as clear an explanation of the financial crisis as one could hope for."--Diane Coyle, The Enlightened Economist "Some astonishingly original ideas."--Alex Brummer, Daily Mail "[A] brilliant new book... [The] prose crisply conveys analysis of real force."--Tom Clark, Guardian "[A] scintillating individual [contribution] to the debate not just on the future of finance but how we should run our economy."--Felix Martin, New Statesman "Adair Turner's new book Between Debt and the Devil is definitely worth your time."--Clive Crook, Bloomberg View "A challenging but relentlessly logical book about the flaws of the system that led us to the Great Recession: excess finance, excessive indebtedness. He adds to the literature that explains why more and more finance is not always good. The proposed cure requires going beyond the present financial regulatory reform. A bold and thought provoking book."--Vitor Constancio, Vice president, European Central Bank, one of Bloomberg's Best Books of 2015 "This book lays down a challenge which subsequent accounts of monetary policy will have to address."--David Willetts, Prospect "[An] excellent book."--Nick Butler, Financial Times "[H]is extensive work both at financial institutions and in academia, have given Turner an insider's view of the world of finance and economics. But his conclusions--that the banking system needs to be fundamentally restructured, and that periodically, instead of a government running up debt, the central bank should just print money for the government to spend--are far from conventional."--Matt Phillips, Quartz "This is a good book, well worth reading... It is well and clearly written and supported by good, non-technical analysis and empirical evidence."--Charles Goodhart, Financial World "These provocative and insightful arguments are particularly valuable at a time when austerity retains its intellectual luster despite its manifest failures."--Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs "Turner's book should make policymakers and commentators sit up and take notice."--TT Ram Mohan, Economic & Political Weekly "This seminal book details an important reality of today's economy: generating enough demand to absorb potential supply depends on explosive increases in indebtedness-private or public, or both."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times