THE GROWTH PENALTY: Unfinished Business, Banking and the American Recovery

The immensity of the financial damage wrought by the 2008 credit crisis was difficult to understand as it happened and still is today. In response to crisis, the US government has spent trillions of dollars in stimulus and used the printing press to fund the accumulation of trillions of dollars in assets.

It is reasonable after five years to ask “is it working”? Are the reforms passed in bank regulation, for instance, effective? What has changed in the housing finance markets that assures stable funding for housing and might help prevent a new crisis? How effective has American leadership – political, regulatory and business – been in responding to the crisis to promote recovery? Have the lessons of the Great Recession, as the period from 2007 to 2011 will referred to throughout this book, been properly applied?

The advantage of considering these questions as 2013 begins is that there is a record to be examined. There is an accounting of the scale of the crisis and a list of those that failed, and those that did not. Cumulatively, this record paints a less than flattering picture of where the country stands today. American optimism is still haunted by the unfinished business of the credit crisis.

This book delves into many of the hot topics of today from a financial perspective. It is sometimes technical, particularly as relates to banking, but the intent is to provide an overview that generalists of all professional backgrounds will follow. This is because all of the issues are connected. They are in fact the same issue manifested differently up and down the American economy. Interestingly, once this view is adopted, many of the country’s seemingly insurmountable problems become more approachable.