The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, Authorized Edition: Final Report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States
Official Government Edition
The definitive study on what caused America’s economic overheating— and WHO was responsible
- Formed in May 2009, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) is a panel of 10 commissioners with experience in concern, regulation, economics, and housed, chosen by Congress to explain what happened and why it happened. This panel has had writ power that enabled them to examination people and examine documents that no reporter had access to.
- The FCIC has reviewed millions of pages of documents, and interviewed more than 600 leader, experts, and participants in the financial markets and government regulatory agencies, as well as individuals and businesses affected by the crisis.
- In the tradition of The 9/11 Commission Report, The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report will be a comp book for the ballad reader, complete with a gloss, charts, and easy-to-publication diagrams, and a timeline that includes important events. It will be read by clericalism makers, corporate executive, regulator, regime agencies, and the American peoples.
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Our Global Neighborhood: The Report of the Commission on Global Governance
Coming to terms with the realities of our new global context, an environment in which homo relationships duration the earth and interdendencies and interconnections are multiplying exponentially, will be the greatest challenge of the coming quattrocento. Our Global Neighborhood takes the first backpedalling in tackling the crucial issues standing in the way of the cosmos parish’s progress on the eve of the xx-first century. Its ALIR-attain recommendations stand as the most thorough assay to ensure amity and progress around the world since the formation of the United Nations.
Conceived by the Commission on Global Governance, this vastly important authority represents the enterprise thinking of xx-8 eminent international fig from an assortment of careerist and world thing background. Established in 1992 to analyze global alteration in Holocene decade and to suggest fashion in which the international parish tin bettor cooperate on global issue, the Commission work to capitalize on the 10000 chance afforded the macrocosm parish in the backwash of the Cold War. Beginning with an anatomy of the composite and contradictory result of globalization and the extremity of the Cold War, this extensive study outline the solon transformation that have transpired maiden the close l yr including the political, economic, reserve, technological, intellect, and institutional modification that have so powerfully marked the S one-half of the rank quattrocento. In twist, it survey the statesman job, such as person struggle, state, environmental debasement, and extensive people ontogeny, that have emerged from these transmutation to confront cosmos leader.
In itself, the end of the Cold War has far from ended the world’s job. While the menace of nuclear superpower war has receded, the spreading of nuclear capability and of biological and chemic weapon poses great danger. Wars, betwixt states and eve more within states (such as the ongoing tragedy of both Yugoslavia and Rwanda), have continued to destroy life. With this in nous, Our Global Neighborhood address the 2 rule norm that have guided relation among states, both before and after the Cold War: sovereignty and ego-finding. It explains wherefore these norm are pic important and how they essential be adapted to gymkhana the new reality of the emerging global parish. Discussing the value of shared value in a clip of passage, it identifies the value that the Commission belief most important, including justness, assets, capacity, autonomy, and nonviolence. And it spell on to call-back for a new global value-system based on a teeth of responsibility and right that would encourage teamwork and coaction in a global neighbourhood.
As the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations approaches in 1995, the adequateness of our establishment of global governance and the need to strengthen them will increasingly claim the attending of creation leaders and citizen alike. The debates prompted by this anniversary lend a poignant seasonableness to Our Global Neighborhood as it brand recommendations for alteration in international organizations–especially those that are part of the United Nations system–such as revitalizing the General Assembly and reforming the Security Council.
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A decent generalist – level survey of all the factors behind the financial crisis,
I would describe the book as really two books. The first 40% or so is more of an analysis of developments in economy and finance over the 20 or so years leading up to the crisis of 08, and the last 60% is more of a narrative of the events of the crisis in the last half of 08. The latter portion heavily reminded me of Sorkin’s book, Too Big to Fail. It similarly relies heavily on interviews with high level executives, officials and so on. I understand that, if you are trying to write something that you want the general public to read, you would opt for the chronological narrative of the second half of the report. However, having read Sorkin’s book, I felt a little frustrated that there was little added insight here, considering the time, resources and investigative power the commission had.
As far as the analysis goes, it is decent enough if not particularly dazzling. There aren’t a lot of surprises here if you have followed the issue over the past 2-3 years. There is nothing like the explosive effect of the Pecora report in the 1930′s, on which this commission was modeled. I think that is in part due to the much more active media we now have now; compared to the 1930′s, so much in here has come out more or less already.
The only real function that the analytical section performs is to package up what has already been disclosed and assert in a general way what weight should be given to what cause(s). Every factor gets mentioned and given some role; the different political appointees on the commission apparently disagree over how much weight should be given which factors. Although there seems to be a good deal of conversation about that disagreement in the blogosphere, having now read the report, it was frankly a little too general to me, and I have more sympathy for the dissenter who said, in effect, “if everything is a cause, nothing is”. Although everything does get mentioned, a number of areas go unexplored in detail. For instance, on page 6, the report notes “The time-tested 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, with a 20% down payment,
went out of style.” But they never really explore why (fixed rate loans went out of style due to interest rate volatility in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the down payment threshold was lowered for two reasons, (1) in the 1980s, advocates for expanding home ownership, such as ACORN, targeted that kind of mortgage as too restrictive, associated it with “redlining” and racism, and pushed for a lowering of origination standards to expand home ownership and (2) real estate developers lobbied for obvious reasons for the lowered downpayment).
The analysis section is a blend of organization by topic and by chronological narrative. This makes it relatively easy to read. However, it might have been more in keeping with the purpose of the commission, as I understand it, to have been less concerned with general readability and provide more quantitative analysis on each topic. I would have loved to have seen something more incisive, although it may be the nature of a commission report that throwing everything in is needed to get even 6 of the 10 to agree on the final text. It took decades for the economics profession to come up with a coherent evidenced account of the causes of the Great Depression, by which I mean Milton Friedman’s, and perhaps that is just going to be the case here as well.
I felt the report does not display a good understanding of several areas that were particularly relevant. The chapter on Lehman, for example, begins with statements by the commission about valuation that are excruciating to read if you have worked on valuation analysis (valuation is an opinion about what something will bring in a particular context and thus valuations differ based on the context, especially depending on whether the context is one of an orderly market and orderly marketing into it, or if you are assuming a forced sale in a disorderly market). Similarly, they do not understand CDS’s well at all. When they repeatedly describe AIG’s CDS’s as “new fangled” and so on, they demonstrate that superficial understanding. Credit default swaps are simply a means of credit insurance and financial institutions have been writing credit insurance since the Renaissance if not earlier, just with different documentation. That said, the commission does correctly understand the difference here was that AIG’s CDS’s were not written by a regulated insurer or financial institution that had to reserve capital against the exposure. At the same time, since regulators repeatedly and systematically failed, as the report says, where they did have jurisdiction, it is not clear that the mere fact of CDS regulation would have changed the outcome for AIG.
The report reads as if someone who wanted to be a novelist or journalist but was not very good was given responsibility for the final draft. There are too many passages that…
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|UNREADABLE PRINT!!,
WARNING: The print size and quality of this publication will make it unreadable to many people (as it is for me).
The main font is tiny, and the font for the footnotes is vanishingly small. The cheap printing method has also resulted in a font with very low contrast. A further problem is that the margins are narrow even near the spine, so the lines of print curve out of sight as you try to read them.
I am able to read all sorts of books and have reading glasses to do so, yet I am unable to read this book. The Amazon entry for this book should warn potential purchasers of the readability issue.
Unfortunately, the version of the report from the Government Printing Office uses the same format. This is a travesty.
For many people, the best choice at present is to download the entire report for free (as a single PDF). On screen, the print size can be adjusted at will. That is how I intend to read the report. If I need to excerpt some pages, I can print them from the PDF. Pages printed from the PDF at least have excellent contrast, even though there is no way to adjust the font size. The report can be downloaded here: [...]
In addition to the readability issue, potential purchasers should be aware that this Authorized Edition from PublicAffairs does not include the index to the report. The index must be downloaded (as a PDF) from the publisher’s website.
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|Dances around the fundamental cause-Completely unregulated speculation in derivatives,
This report spends over 500 hundred pages to reach a conclusion that basically targets the rating agencies as the main culprit in the economic collapse that is now referred to as the Great Recession.The real problem was the passage of legislation that eliminated the firewalls erected in the mid 1930′s to prevent what happened .Three major problems can be identified.It is clear that if these three types of events had not occurred,then the Great Recession could have been prevented.
The three major factors making the Great Recession inevitable were (a) the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act(GS) of 1933 in 1999 , (b) the passage of the Commodities Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) of 2000,and (c) the planned and organized restructuring of the American banking system ,started by Jimmy Carter in 1978,to create megasized banks through periodic waves of mergers,acquisitions and takeovers.It should be emphasized that the major supporters of these actions in the late 1980′s to 2000 were Bill and Hilary Clinton,F D Raines,Rubin ,Summers, Senator Dodd,Barney Frank,Senator Schumer and the usual array of Libertarian Republican supporters of Wall Street casino capitalism ,such as Phil and Wendy Gramm.Repealing Glass Steagall allowed the private commercial banks to again set up investment bank units to engage in financial speculation.This was the primary problem that occurred in the mid to late 1920′s.Highly speculative,leveraged ,margin account loans financed the stock market bubble while balloon payment loan financing of mortgages created the bubble in housing.This double bubble led directly to the Great Depression of the 1930′s. The same type of double bubble led to the Great Recession of the 2000′s,as well. The Japanese Great Recession of 1993-2004 was also the direct result of a double bubble in real estate and stocks.
The CFMA removed derivatives and credit default swaps(CDS’s) from any regulation at the state and federal level.Derivatives,CDS’s and CDO’s(Collateralized Debt Obligations)played the role in the 2000′s that margin account financing of stock options had played in the 1920′s.The subprime mortgage loans game ,along with the constant efforts of Countrywide Financial and Ameriquest to convert the fixed rate mortgages of low income citizens to adjustable rate mortgages by constant refinancing,played the role of the balloon payments game of the 1920′s .
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|Understanding Global Governance,
A good beginners book if you want to understand what global governance is and what underpins it and the bigger picture that it represents.
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|If you are a leader you must read this book,
The Commission on Global Governance was established in the belief that international developments had created a unique opportunity for strengthening global cooperation to meet the challenge of securing peace, achieving sustainable development, and universalizing democracy. A preliminary study led to the “Stockholm Initiative on Global Security and Governance” and the appointment of a distinguished 28-member commission serving in a private capacity independent of government or any organization. “The Commission’s basic aim is to contribute to the improvement of global governance. It will analyze the main forces of global change, examine the major issues facing the world community, assess the adequacy of global institutional arrangements and suggest how they should be reformed or strengthened.” The members believed that it should be possible to move the world to a higher level of cooperation than has ever been attempted, taking advantage of the growing recognition of global interdependence. Commission members divided themselves into four working groups on global values, global security, global development, and global governance, being guided by a single desire “to develop a common vision of the way forward for the world in making the transition from the cold war and in managing humanity’s journey into the 21st century. We believe this report offers such a vision. The strongest message we can convey is that humanity can agree on a better way to manage its affairs and give hope to present and future generations.”
Today change is very rapid and highly visible. There is a need for balance, caution and vision. Our future will depend on the extent to which people and leaders around the world develop a vision of a better world and the strategies, the institutions and the will to achieve it. Leadership is urgently needed; leadership of a different character with a commitment to public service; leadership informed by an understanding of the most important transformation of recent decades, leadership grounded in a new value system based on a commitment to care for others embodied in the metaphor of being a good neighbor. The Commission was convinced that whatever ideas it advanced in institutional and other change, must be grounded in values that speak to the tasks facing the contemporary world, including acceptance of a global ethic, and courageous leadership at all levels of society infused with that ethic. Without a global ethic, the frictions and tensions of living in the global neighborhood will multiply; without leadership, even the best designed institution and strategies will fail. Barbara Ward summed it up in these words: “The most important change that people can make is to change their way of looking at the world. We can change studies, jobs, neighborhoods, even countries and continents and still remain much as we always were. But change our fundamental angle of vision and everything changes – our priorities, our values, our judgements, our pursuits. Again and again, in the history of religion, this total upheaval in the imagination has marked the beginning of a new life … a turning of the heart, a ‘metanoia,’ by which men see with new eyes and understand with new minds and turn their energies to new ways of living.” Institutions respond better to these issues than governments, for whom the short-term political expediency takes precedence.
Establishing an ethical dimension to global governance requires commitment to a set of core values that can unite people of all cultural, political, religious and philosophical backgrounds; core values such as respect for life, liberty, justice, equity, mutual respect, caring, and integrity. The Commission urges the international community to unite in support of a global ethic of common rights and shared responsibilities, which encompasses the rights of all people to:
- a secure life
- equitable treatment
- an opportunity to earn a fair living and provide for their own welfare
- preservation of differences through peaceful means
- participation in governance at all levels
- free and fair petition for redress of gross injustices
- equal access to information
- equal access to the global commons
At the same time, all people share a responsibility to:
- contribute to the common good
- consider the impact of their actions on the security and welfare of others
- promote equity, including gender equity
- protect the interests of future generations by pursuing sustainable development and safeguarding the global commons
- preserve humanity’s cultural and intellectual heritage
- be active participants in governance; and
- work to eliminate corruption
Mobilizing the collective power of people to shape the future to make life in the 21st century more democratic, more secure and more sustainable is the foremost challenge of our generation. The world needs a…
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