• +353-1-415-1241(GMT OFFICE HOURS)
  • 1-800-526-8630(US/CAN TOLL FREE)
  • 1-917-300-0470(EST OFFICE HOURS)
The End of Finance - Product Image

The End of Finance

  • Published: October 2011
  • Region: World
  • 300 Pages
  • John Wiley and Sons Ltd

This new book by two distinguished Italian economists is a highly original contribution to our understanding of the origins and aftermath of the financial crisis. The authors show that the recent financial crisis cannot be understood simply as a malfunctioning in the subprime mortgage market: rather, it is rooted in a much more fundamental transformation, taking place over an extended time period, in the very nature of finance.

The ‘end’ or purpose of finance is to be found in the social institutions by which the making and acceptance of promises of payment are made possible - that is, the creation and cancellation of debt contracts within a specified time frame. Amato and Fantacci argue that developments in the modern financial system by which debts are securitized has endangered this fundamental credit/debt structure. The illusion has been created that debts are universally liquid in the sense that they need not be redeemed but can be continually sold on in increasingly extensive global markets. What appears to have reduced the riskiness of default for individual agents has in fact increased the fragility of the system as a whole.

The authors READ MORE >

Introduction
Part One: Phenomenology
I. Do we know what the financial markets are?
II. At the root of the possibility of crisis: liquidity and risk
III. What is credit?
IV. What is money?
V. Finance starting from the end
VI. Capitalism and debt: a matter of life and death
Part Two: History
I. From credit risk to liquidity risk (2008)
II. The globalization of capital (1973)
III. ‘Fiat dollar'. And the world saw that it was good (1971)
IV. The Eurodollar chimera (1958)
V. The European Payments Union (1950)
VI. Bretton Woods: the plan that might have made it (1944)
VII. Bretton Woods: the system that found implementation (1944)
VIII. The crisis paradigm (1929)
IX. Orchestra Rehearsal
X. Money before and after the gold standard (1717)
XI. The Bank of England and power currency (1694)
XII. The International Currency of the Trade Fairs (1579)
Part Three: Politics
I. Double or quits?
II. The way out of liquidity: the Gordian knot and utopia
III. Prevention or cure? The structural paradox of the anti-crisis policies
IV. The other finance
V. The (rare) "green shoots" of a possible reform
VI. If not now, when?

“This is an important book. It is clearly destined to become one of the very best accounts of the financial crisis –. it is clear, concise and very readable. Its deep theoretical understanding of the issues is combined with the best. short account of the historical evolution of the capitalist financial system that I have encountered. The result is a. sophisticated and accessible analysis of how a better financial system might be constructed.”. – Geoffrey Ingham, University of Cambridge

Format Properties
Hard Copy (Paper back) The book will be shipped to you. The cover has a paper back.
Hard Copy (Hard Back) The book will be shipped to you. The cover has a hard back.
Note: Product cover images may vary from those shown
More

RELATED PRODUCTS

Our Clients

Our clients' logos