Abstract

How have financial reforms after the 2008 financial crisis transformed the financial system and its impact on capitalist economies? In particular, in how far have post-crisis reforms affected the pro-cyclical character of the system, which has been characterized as a system of compounding bubbles, moving from boom to bust to the next boom (Blyth 2008)? As the frequency and severity of financial booms and busts have increased over the last four decades (Borio 2012) in accord with the secular expansion of financial activities called financialization, few if any questions are more pertinent to our time. The great recession has severely shaken the capacity of democratic societies to deal with any future financial crises stemming from asset price appreciation. At the same time, ongoing processes of asset price appreciation, in particular with respect to real estate breaching pre-crisis levels in the EU (see Figure 39.1), increase inequality (Turner 2015). Figure 39.1 Source: Available at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Housing_price_statistics_-_house_price_index. For a similar, albeit less extreme finding on the global level, see http://www.imf.org/external/research/housing/