The Age of Instability: The Global Financial Crisis and What Comes Next

by David Smith

The near-collapse of the global banking system was not supposed to happen. In an era of financial globalisation and sophisticated modelling of risk, the manias, panics and crashes of the past had apparently become historical curiosities. Financial derivatives were based on the idea that parcelling up loans and selling them to a wide range of investors across the globe would spread risk - Alan Greenspan said so. Instead these instruments amplified such risk and produced the biggest collapse of financial confidence in the modern era. The apparent ushering in of a new and more uncertain era which looks set to last beyond the immediate crisis has created a sense of panic. And just as there is nothing new in the nature of the panic - except for its scale and global reach - so there is little new in these kinds of shifts in the economic environment. In this bold and cohesive book David Smith asks how did an apparently clear blue economic sky mask the approaching ferocious storm.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Finance

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2010

About the author

David Smith is Economics Editor of The Sunday Times. He has a number of other books under his belt and is regularly on the radio and television, commentating on economics.

Reviews

[Steve Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good mostly

Generally very good in the posts I was reading it fit for, the banking crisis of the late 2000s. Towards the end got tied up on monetary policy which was way over my head. I understand why it was needed but would urge preferred more detail on the banks.

[Alan Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was generally a depressing book to read. It has a cogent description of the collapse and a worrying prediction for future trends.