Over The Cliff: From the Subprime to the Global Financial Crisis

Frederic S. Mishkin

NBER Working Paper No. 16609
Issued in December 2010
NBER Program(s):   EFG   ME

This paper examines what transformed a significant, but relatively mild, financial disruption into a full-fledged financial crisis. It discusses why, although the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy was a key trigger for the global financial crisis, three other events were at least as important: the AIG collapse on September 16, 2008; the run on the Reserve Primary Fund on the same day; and the struggle to get the Troubled Asset Relief Plan (TARP) plan approved by Congress over the following couple of weeks. The paper then looks at the policy responses to the financial crisis to evaluate whether they helped avoid a worldwide depression. The paper ends by discussing the policy challenges raised in the aftermath of the crisis.

Published: Frederic S. Mishkin, 2011. "Over the Cliff: From the Subprime to the Global Financial Crisis," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 49-70, Winter.

You may purchase this paper on-line in .pdf format from SSRN.com ($5) for electronic delivery.

Acknowledgments

Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX