Archive

As the U.S. Congress works to undo financial regulation, INET reflects on the lessons of the Bear Stearns bailout

From the Archives: In the wake of the Bear Stearns bailout in 2008, INET Research Director Tom Ferguson and President Rob Johnson say taxpayers rescuing banks are owed their due: “If the public is going to pay for [bailouts]… it should also get paid back for them.”

Ten years ago, the investment bank Bear Stearns collapsed. Its controversial rescue by the Federal Reserve and JP Morgan Chase marked a prelude to the global financial crisis, which would begin in earnest in September 2008. As part of INET’s look back at the financial crisis, we offer this series of reflections on the Bear Stearns bailout, the financialization of debt, and the moral hazard of government bailouts of banks. 

Unregulated, speculative lending markets nearly brought down the global financial system 10 years ago. Now, Western banks are exporting this failed model to the developing world.

Ten years ago when Bear Stearns crashed, the Fed decided to bail out first, ask questions later. It was a mistake that set a bad precedent.

Banks are pushing for deregulation and roll backs of Dodd-Frank’s regular check-ups on their financial health. We should be worried. 

Mariana Mazzucato argues that the idea that entrepreneurship is confined to the private sector is wrong.

Cuba’s entirely state-owned biopharmaceutical industry has been remarkably successful, and can serve as a model for other nations

One of Wall Street’s favorite tools could be deepening the growing chasm between America’s rich and poor, according to INET grantee William Lazonick.

Despite assembling a formidable data set and leveling a bold argument, Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century has theoretical and accounting flaws that distort its central findings

Economist Olugbenga Ajilore shows the high cost of the American government’s arming of local police with military weapons, which has exacerbated lethal use of force against black communities

Workers, innovation, and productivity all suffer when corporations spend their new U.S. tax breaks on stock buybacks.

Why women experts are denied the same scholarly authority conferred to men, and what we should do about it

By pushing workers into precarious, part-time work, “Third Way” governments of the past 20 years helped to create the disturbing economic trend that’s vexing orthodox economists

In the face of  laissez-faire capitalism at home and resurgent nationalism across the globe, INET offers an innovative look at the causes of—and solutions for—the problems that ail a fissuring world economy.