This comprehensive historical account tells the story of 200 years of financial panics in America, from 1819 through to the economic hardship of 2020, showing how and why so many financial crises have occurred in the United States and offering solutions to avoiding these sorts of crises moving forward.

In 200 Years of American Financial Panics, Thomas P. Vartanian examines the myriad factors that contributed to financial crises throughout American history: the imposition of tariffs and the creation of dozens of poorly regulated, uncapitalized state banks facilitated the collapse of 1819; government battling over whether gold, silver or paper money should be the preeminent method of exchange created the perfect conditions for the depression of 1893; in the 1920s, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates low to assist the central banks in England and France, allowing an overheated stock market in the United States to shift into overdrive and crash in 1929; the roots of the S&L crisis in the late '80s can be found in 1966, when Congress and the states imposed artificial caps on deposit and mortgage interest rates to encourage greater home ownership; in the 1990's, the government pressured banks to offer mortgages to low and middle-income borrowers while the Fed engaged in loose monetary policies - leading to the greatest economic crisis since the Depression.

This book dissects financial crises in a way not attempted before, showing that the pyramid of governmental financial oversight deployed to foster economic safety has been turned on its head in our current era, making our system of financial oversight less effective and more susceptible to financial crises. Uniquely, Vartanian also explains how the technology explosion, from artificial intelligence to cryptocurrencies, is impacting capital investment, liquidity and business psychology, making it even more critical that the formula for financial oversight in the country be renovated. In a fair-minded and nonpartisan way, Vartanian, the Executive Director of the Program on Financial Regulation & Technology at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School, presents extensive evidence of how some forms of government intervention - certainly not all - threaten market equilibrium.

About the Author

Thomas P. Vartanian (Washington, DC) is the Executive Director of the Program on Financial Regulation & Technology at George Mason University's Scalia Law School, where he is also a professor. Between 1983 and 2018, Professor Vartanian chaired the Financial Institution's practices at the international law firms of Dechert LLP and Fried Frank LLP. Before that, he served in the Reagan Administration as General Counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation. Between 1976 and 1981, he was a Staff Attorney and Special Assistant to the Chief Counsel at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. He also served as Chairman of the American Bar Association's Cyberspace Law Committee between 1998 and 2002. He has been an adjunct professor of law teaching banking and electronic commerce law at Georgetown, George Washington and Boston University Schools of Law. He has guest lectured at Harvard Law School. He is also a contributing opinion editor at the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, and American Banker.

Book Information
ISBN 9781633886704
Author Thomas P. Vartanian
Format Hardback
Page Count 460
Imprint Prometheus Books
Publisher Prometheus Books
Weight(grams) 816g
Dimensions(mm) 238mm * 164mm * 39mm