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The Banking Crisis: Born of Dreams, Fuelled by Bad Behaviours

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Driven to the Brink

Abstract

The International Monetary Fund estimated that financial institutions around the globe would eventually write off more than $1 trillion of subprime mortgage-backed securities (MBSs); these losses would wipe out much of the capital of the world banking system. Yet with the benefit of hindsight the banking crisis was predictable and events unfolded as one could have anticipated. The crisis was borne of dreams. It started with the American dream (the pursuit of happiness and the right to own your own home), was followed by the entrepreneurs dream (new and untapped opportunity) and then picked up by the capital market dream (extraordinary profit).

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Notes

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Micklethwait, A., Dimond, P. (2017). The Banking Crisis: Born of Dreams, Fuelled by Bad Behaviours. In: Driven to the Brink. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59053-4_3

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