The Financial Crisis


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Recent posts from the D&S Blog:



Earlier posts on the crisis:



Still earlier posts on the crisis:

Artices from Dollars & Sense:

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  • Bichler-Nitzan thumb

    Contours of Crisis

    By Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan | Web-Only | Dec 31st

    First in a series of articles on the current crisis. The series aims to outline some of the important contours of the crisis, to situate these patterns in historical context, and to reflect on their possible causes and implications. Read more »

  • Hossein-zadeh thumb

    Whose Interests Will Shape Obama’s “Change”?

    By Ismael Hossein-zadeh | Web-Only | Dec 23rd

    The market meltdown has made change an urgent universal demand, but the question is: what kind of change? Whose mandates or interests will guide the course of the urgently needed change? The answer depends on the outcome of the balance of power, or the outcome of the ongoing (though largely submerged) class struggle. Read more »

  • sit-in thumbnail

    The Real Audacity of Hope

    By Kari Lydersen and James Tracy | Dec 12th

    The story behind the sit-in at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago and the recent settlement with Bank of America. Read more »

  • dollar thumb

    The Impasse Ahead

    By Korkut A. Erturk | Web-Only |Dec 12th

    Government efforts to stimulate demand won’t be enough to stop the downward recessionary spiral. While the stock market searches for its own bottom, the fate of the economy depends on the health of the dollar. Read more »

  • financial vs. real economy thumb

    Crisis and Neoliberal Capitalism

    By David Kotz | Nov/Dec 2008

    It is impossible to predict the course of the financial crisis. But even if the financial crisis is contained, the bursting of the housing bubble—which began in 2007 and is bound to continue for some time—will have a powerful downward impact on the economy. Read more »

  • Notes logo

    Ten Weeks That Shattered a World

    Fifth in a Series on the Subprime/Securitization Panic

    By Larry Peterson | Web-Only | Nov 7th

    Make no mistake about it. The world has experienced in the last few weeks events comparable in historical significance to the fall of the Berlin Wall. As in the fall of the Wall, there was an exceptionally sudden collapse of an hegemonic system that had seemed, to the vast majority of observers, and only weeks before the event, to be at least somewhat secure in its continued existence, if irreversibly committed to an inevitable, fundamental process of reform. Read more »

  • bond thumb

    Financialization: A Primer

    By Ramaa Vasudevan | Nov/Dec 2008

    You don’t have to be an investor dabbling in the stock market to feel the power of finance. Finance pervades the lives of ordinary people in many ways, and its size and impact are only getting bigger. Read more »

  • fan thumb

    Capitalism Hits the Fan

    By Rick Wolff | Nov/Dec 2008

    The current crisis has profound social roots in America’s households and families, and political roots in government policies. It did not start with finance, and it won’t end with finance. Read more »

  • Notes logo

    Notes on the Foreclosure Crisis

    By Tom Weisskopf | Web-Only | Nov 7th

    The number of home foreclosures across the United States is now approaching 2 million, and economists expect that several million more borrowers may default within another year as job losses rise and housing prices continue to fall. This constitutes a crisis that must be addressed as soon as possible, for multiple reasons. Read more »

  • Dr. Dollar thumb

    Dealing with a “Rotten Tooth”

    By Arthur MacEwan | Nov/Dec 2008

    Dear Dr. Dollar: Isn’t the bailout like having a rotten tooth extracted? The extraction is unpleasant, but it beats the alternative. Shouldn’t people quit complaining and suck it up? Read more »

  • Commercial Paper graph thumb

    Commercial Paper

    Financialization’s (Latest) Weak Link

    By Max Fraad Wolff | Web-Only | Oct 29th

    There may be no better illustration of the staggering pain emanating from financial market turbulence than the carnage experienced recently in commercial paper markets worldwide. Read more »

  • bailing worker thumb

    Confidence Trick

    By John Miller | Sept/Oct 2008

    Whatever the bailout will do to patch up the credit system, it will not counteract the downward spiral in housing prices that brought on the crisis. Read more »

  • Notes logo

    Notes on the Financial Crisis, #3

    Third in a Series

    By Tom Weisskopf | Web-Only | Oct 15th

    The last 10 days have brought further news of economic disaster, highly volatile stock market movements (most of them sharply downward), and indisputable evidence that the crisis is world-wide in scope. It’s no longer just Hank Paulson and his associates trying to figure out what the U.S. Government should do to stem a collapse of the U.S. financial system. Read more »

  • Notes logo

    Notes on the Financial Crisis, #2

    Second in a Series

    By Tom Weisskopf | Web-Only | Oct 5th

    Barack Obama has shown stronger signs of readiness to pursue the measures needed to make the bailout effort succeed, and in a way that is fair to all concerned. In order to follow through, he needs to be prodded and supported by substantial Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. Read more »

  • Notes logo

    Notes on the Financial Crisis, #1

    First in a Series

    By Tom Weisskopf | Web-Only | Oct 1st

    The current financial crisis is broadly attributable to the system of (relatively) deregulated and globalized capitalism into which the U.S. economy is now thoroughly integrated. Read more »

  • Freddie Mac logo

    The Fannie/Freddie Bailout

    By Fred Moseley | Sept/Oct 2008

    A look at the Fannie/Freddie bailout exposes the critical fault line—between private profits and public aims—that ran right through the hybrid structure of the mortgage giants. Read more »

  • wall street thumb

    The Greed Fallacy

    By Arthur MacEwan | Sept/Oct 2008

    Various people explain the current financial crisis as a result of "greed." But there is no indication of a change in the degree or extent of greed on Wall Street in the last several years. Read more »

  • moseley thumb

    How to Stop the Foreclosures?

    By Fred Moseley | July/August 2008

    If current policies do not change, it is estimated that, taken as a whole, up to five million homeowners could lose their homes due to foreclosure over the next few years. Which policies would truly help homeowners at risk? Read more »

  • private equity thumb

    Private Equity Exposed

    Orlando Segura, Jr. | July/August 2008

    How do private equity firms make money? How do private equity firms affect the distribution of financial risk in society as a whole? And how do regulations give private equity firms an advantage in the market? | Order this issue or subscribe.

  • Freddie Mac logo

    Banking on Bankruptcy

    Fourth in a Series on the Subprime/Securitization Panic

    By Larry Peterson | Web-Only | Aug 11th

    In order to understand how an unstable situation at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tipped over into a rout that threatened the whole global financial system, we have to focus on a charming investment strategy that is becoming more and more popular every time a major financial firm finds itself under mortal attack. Read more »

  • dr. dollar logo

    The Bear Stearns Bailout

    By Arthur MacEwan | May/June 2008

    Dear Dr. Dollar: Who cares if Bear Stearns fails? Or the Carlyle Group? Or Merrill Lynch? Or one of the other big financial companies? They've made their profits. So what's the problem? Read more »

  • federal reserve seal

    Can the Fed Handle a Systemic Crisis? Maybe.

    By Jane D'Arista | May/June 2008

    The growth of nontransparent over-the-counter markets in derivatives and the explosion in leverage both point to what went wrong in the U.S. financial system over the last two decades. | Order this issue or subscribe.

  • billtwo thumb

    Bear Stearns: Not Your Average Bailout

    Third in a Series on the Subprime/Securitization Panic

    By Larry Peterson | Web-Only | May 13th

    The Fed-led rescue of Bear gave investors an unmistakable signal that the central bank would not allow what had long ceased to be perceived as a “mere” liquidity (involving availability of funds to carry out current business) crunch to finally, however belatedly, tip over into a full-blown solvency (involving conditions pertaining to whether or not business could be carried on or not at all) crisis. The unique thing about this shift was that any prior distinction between systemic solvency and the solvency of one particular institution was reduced to precious little. Read more »

  • Dodd thumb

    A New WPA?

    By Ryan A. Dodd | March/April 2008

    National governments, by serving as "employers of last resort," could guarantee full employment by providing a job for anyone ready, willing, and able to work. Read more »

  • Pollin thumb

    It's Still the Economy, Stupid

    By Robert Pollin | March/April 2008

    What do the candidates have to say about our current reality of financial crisis and recession, and the generation-long stagnation in average living standards that has preceded the crisis of the moment? Read more »

  • Miller thumb

    War Spending, Deficits,
    and Economic Stimulus

    By Arthur MacEwan | March/April 2008

    Dear Dr. Dollar: Doesn't all the war spending stimulate the economy? And shouldn't the Bush tax cuts do the same? So why are we falling into recession? Read more »

  • billtwo thumb

    Finding Spare Change for the Invisible Hand

    Second in a Series on the Subprime/Securitization Panic

    By Larry Peterson | Web-Only | Mar 3rd

    Since our first piece on the subprime/securitization crisis came out, we’ve seen official proposals to confine the damage come and go, with price tags going up each time, while the contagion itself continues to infect regions of the financial world most people never even knew existed. Read more »

  • kawachi thumb

    Stormier Weather

    By John Miller | Jan/Feb 2008

    Hard times have been the hallmark of the U.S. economy during this decade, even as the economy expanded. | Order this issue or subscribe.

  • mortgage thumb

    The Subprime/ Securitization Panic

    A Guide for the Perplexed

    By Larry Peterson | Web-Only | Dec 14th, 2007

    What does the swindling of financially benighted, sometimes greedy, and even gullible American homeowners have to do with collateral used by mysterious funds which promise outsized returns to the incredibly wealthy? And how on earth can developments in these markets cause a bank run (Northern Rock) in England, which hadn’t seen anything similar since the 1860s? Moreover, who are those even more shadowy characters lurking on the horizon—Sovereign Wealth Funds and private equity investors to name two—who stand to capitalize on the mess? Read more »

  • Black thumb

    (Mis)Understanding a Banking Industry in Transition

    By William K. Black | Nov/Dec 2007

    To even begin to understand the recent crisis in the U.S. and global banking industries, you have to look back at the seismic shifts in the industry over the past 30 to 40 years. The story that continues to unfold is one of progressively worse policies that make financial crises more common and more severe. Read more »

  • Palley thumb

    The Fed and America's Distorted Expansion

    By Thomas I. Palley | Nov/Dec 2007

    The U.S. economy has been in expansion mode since November 2001. Though of reasonable duration, the expansion has been fragile and unbalanced. Now, with the subprime mortgage and credit crises, there are signs that the expansion may be ending. If the Fed deserves criticism, it is for endorsing the policy paradigm underlying a distorted expansion. Read more »

  • homeownership thumb

    The Homeownership Myth

    By Howard Karger | Spring 2007

    How pushing homeownership puts low-income people at risk.

  • chase thumb

    Chase: A Bank for the New Century?

    By Joseph Pluta | Spring 2007

    Chase Bank's suspect practices suggest the consequences of banking deregulation.

  • fringe economy thumb

    America’s Fringe Economy

    By Howard Karger | Nov/Dec 2006

    Financial services for the poor and credit-challenged are big business.

  • house of cards thumb

    Bubble Trouble

    By Dean Baker | Jan/Feb 2005

    Throughout the recovery, overheated housing prices have kept the economy simmering.

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