The Global Financial Crisis
We Built This City on Debt 'n' Entitlements: Stockton Faces Bankruptcy Threat
As cities across the USA increasingly become mired in financial crises due to pensions, health care costs, debt and overspending, PBS NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels profiles one city making efforts to avoid bankruptcy: Stockton, California.
ABC - Four Corners: Dicing with Debt - Ireland
This story by Marian Wilkinson and Mary Ann Jolle that is presented by Kerry O'Brien details a private sector debt binge and bailout in one of Europe's smallest countries, that still has the capacity to spark another round of financial panic across the globe.
SBS - Dateline: Pain in Spain?
The financial crisis in Europe is hitting Spain particularly hard, with youth unemployment pushing 50% and hundreds of evictions every day of people who can no longer afford their mortgage repayments.
In this SBS Dalteline feature, David O’Shea travels across the country to get a personal insight from the people affected by the economic downturn. With five million out of work, unemployment benefits only paid for the first two years and property prices plummeting, David finds a country consumed by the crisis. While some are fighting back with noisy protests, others are quitting completely, leaving the country with a ‘brain drain’ of highly qualified workers. Economists say that Spain is ‘too big to fail and too big to bail’, so who will help the country out of its crisis?
BBC News - Greece: Dangerous precedent?
In this BBC News article from 21st February 2012, business editor Robert Peston muses about the Greek debt crisis on his way to Rome.
BBC - Podcasts - Peter Day's World of Business
In this opinion piece, Economics Professor Morgan Kelly from the University College Dublin analyses what led to the bailout of the Irish State and the role played by the individuals as well as institutions such as the IMF and European Central Bank.
Corporate and Household Debt Distress in Latvia: Strengthening the Incentives for Market-Based Approach to Debt Resolution
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2011/wp1185.pdf
In this 2011 International Monetary Fund Working Paper, Economist and former member of the Board and Chief Executive Director of the Czech National Bank, Michaela Erbenova et al. examine how Latvia has addressed its debt crisis and to what extent it might serve as an example to other nations with limited financial resources.
Debt Dilution and Sovereign Default Risk
In this 2011 International Monetary Fund Working Paper, Economist Juan Carlos Hatchondo et al. highlight the importance of sovereigns eliminating debt dilution - i.e. decreasing the value of debt issued in the past by issuing new debt. Their research shows that debt dilution accounts for 86% of the default risk and while a reduction in the face value of debt in itself reduces the risk of default, the most important effect on default risk results from a shift in the government's set of borrowing opportunities.
Sovereign Rating News and Financial Markets Spillovers: Evidence from the European Debt Crisis
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2011/wp1168.pdf
In this 2011 International Monetary Fund Working Paper, Economist Rabah Arezki et al. examine the impact on financial markets from sovereign rating news. Perhaps not surprisingly, they find evidence that downgrades to near speculative ratings for economies such as Greece have systematic spill over effects across Euro zone countries.
How The Recession Has Changed Us
This 2011 chart from "The Atlantic" magazine shows how the profile of the USA economy and society overall has changed during the recession that lasted just 18 months between December 2007 and June 2009.
Sovereign Default Risk Premia, Fiscal Limits and Fiscal Policy
In this 2010 Bank of Canada Working Paper, Senior Analyst and Economist Huixin Bi examine the correlation between government debt levels and default risk premia for developed countries with different sovereign credit ratings.
Are Financial Crises Alike?
In this 2010 International Monetary Fund Working Paper, Mardi Dungey et al. examine different financial crises and how in each instance the contagion propagates through markets. Under different sets of modelling assumptions, they find that all financial crises were alike.
3 Scenarios for the Greek Debt Crisis
This "The Atlantic" article examines the three fundamental options Greece has for dealing with its debt crisis.
Wall Street on the Tundra
https://depts.washington.edu/teclass/articles472/Wall%20Street%20on%20the%20Tundra%20_%20vanityfair.pdf
In this disturbing 2009 Vanity Fair article, Economist, Author, Financial Journalist and Contributing Editor of Vanity Fair Magazine, Michael Lewis looks at what happened in Iceland just prior to the Global Financial Crisis, when this country of 300,000 citizens saw what was described as "the most rapid expansion of a banking system in the history of mankind", that has left the country with debts of 850% of GDP.
The Decline of Western Civilisation
In this BBC Interview Peter Day discusses the implications of the Global Financial Crisis with Harvard University Professor, historian and author, Niall Ferguson.
Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds
In this Vanity Fair article, Economist, Author, Financial Journalist and Contributing Editor of Vanity Fair Magazine, Michael Lewis explores the repercussions of the Global Financial Crisis through the prism of the shenanigans that occurred at the Vatopaidi monastery.
Charlie Munger: Boom and Bust is NormalBBC interview in which a very wise and sanguine Charlie Munger sees the Global Financial Crisis as the natural outworking of the capitalist system.
Evan Davis talks to Warren Buffett
Another insight into the Global Financial Crisis, human nature and investing, from the Oracle from Omaha.
The Aftermath of the Financial Crisis
In this 2008 paper, Carmen M. Reinhart (Economist with the School of Public Policy and Department of Economics at the University of Maryland) and co-author Kenneth S. Rogoff (Economist at the Economics Department of Harvard University) examine timelines on various key economic indicators such as house and equity prices, unemployment rates, GDP and public debt levels following various historic financial crises.