Financial Innovation: Too Much Or Too Little? (The MIT Press)

Financial Innovation: Too Much or Too Little? (The MIT Press)

About the Author Michael Haliassos holds the Chair of Macroeconomics and Finance at Goethe University and is the editor of Financial Innovation: Too Much or Too Little? (MIT Press).Robert J. Shiller is Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University. He is the author of Finance and the Good Society and other books.Andrei Shleifer is Professor of Economics at Harvard University and recipient of the 1999 John Bates Clark Medal. He is the author of Without a Map: Political Tactics and Economic Reform in Russia (MIT Press, 2000) and other books.Otmar Issing is President of the Center for Financial Studies at Goethe University in Frankfurt. He has been a member of the executive boards of the Bundesbank (German Central Bank) and the European Central Bank (where he was also Chief Economist). He is the author of The Birth of the Euro and Monetary Policy in the Euro Area. Prominent economists consider the role of financial innovation in economic crises.In assigning blame for the recent economic crisis, many have pointed to the proliferation of new, complex financial products-mortgage securitization in particular-as being at the heart of the meltdown. The prominent economists from academia, policy institutions, and financial practice who contribute to this book, however, take a more nuanced view of financial innovation. They argue that it was not too much innovation but too little innovation-and the lack of balance between debt-related products and asset-related products-that lies behind the crisis. Prevention of future financial crises, then, will be aided by a regulatory and legal framework that fosters the informed use of financial innovation and its positive effects on the economy rather than quashing innovation entirely.The book, which includes two contributions from 2013 Nobe Laureate Robert Shiller as well as a discussion of Shiller's ?acroMarkets