After the Great Complacence

Financial Crisis and the Politics of Reform

Ewald Engelen, Ismail Ertürk, Julie Froud, Sukhdev Johal, Adam Leaver, Mick Moran, Adriana Nilsson, and Karel Williams

Provides a clear narrative on financial innovation before 2007 and political obstacles to reform after 2007
Accessibly written for a wide audience
Interdisciplinary approach - economics, politics, accounting, sociology

After the Great Complacence

Financial Crisis and the Politics of Reform

Ewald Engelen, Ismail Ertürk, Julie Froud, Sukhdev Johal, Adam Leaver, Mick Moran, Adriana Nilsson, and Karel Williams

Description

What is the relationship between the financial system and politics? In a democratic system, what kind of control should elected governments have over the financial markets? What policies should be implemented to regulate them? What is the role played by different elites--financial, technocratic, and political--in the operation and regulation of the financial system? And what role should citizens, investors, and savers play?

These are some of the questions addressed in this challenging analysis of the particular features of the contemporary capitalist economy in Britain, the USA, and Western Europe. The authors argue that the causes of the financial crisis lay in the bricolage and innovation in financial markets, resulting in long chains and circuits of transactions and instruments that enabled bankers to earn fees, but which did not sufficiently take into account system risk, uncertainty, and unintended consequences.

In the wake of the crisis, the authors argue that social scientists, governments, and citizens need to re-engage with the political dimensions of financial markets. This book offers a controversial and accessible exploration of the disorders of our financial capitalism and its justifications. With an innovative emphasis on the economically 'undisclosed' and the political 'mystifying', it combines technical understanding of finance, cultural analysis, and al political account of interests and institutions.

After the Great Complacence

Financial Crisis and the Politics of Reform

Ewald Engelen, Ismail Ertürk, Julie Froud, Sukhdev Johal, Adam Leaver, Mick Moran, Adriana Nilsson, and Karel Williams

Introduction
1. After the Great Complacence: the Challenge of the Undisclosed and the Mystified
Section I: "Not as it seems": Financial Innovation and the Undisclosed
2. Derivatives: Conjuncture, Bricolage, and Circuits
3. Hedge Funds and Private Equity as War Machines
4. Banking for Themselves: the Transaction Generating Machine
Section 2: Beyond Democratic Control? Mystified Politics Before and After the Crisis
5. Mystification Undermines Regulation Before 2007
6. Closure: Distributive Coalition vs. Democratic Opening
7. In Charge? Political Classes and Technocratic Elites
Conclusion
8. What is To Be Done? Mobilising for Simpler, Sustainable Finance

After the Great Complacence

Financial Crisis and the Politics of Reform

Ewald Engelen, Ismail Ertürk, Julie Froud, Sukhdev Johal, Adam Leaver, Mick Moran, Adriana Nilsson, and Karel Williams

Author Information

This book is written by an interdisciplinary team based at the ESRC funded Centre for Research on Socio Cultural change at the University of Manchester. The authors are collectively best known for their pioneering work on financialization including team written books such as J. Froud et al, Financialization and Strategy (2006), I Erturk et al, Financialization at Work (2008) and M. Savage and K. Williams, Elites Remembered (2008). Several of the authors also publish individually within their disciplines with books such as M. Moran, The British Regulatory State (2007) and Business, Politics, and Society (2009).

Ewald Engelen is Professor of Financial Geography at the University of Amsterdam.
Ismail Erturk is Senior Lecturer in Innovation, Management, and Policy at the Manchester Business School
Julie Froud is Professor of Financial Innovation at Manchester Business School
Sukhdev Johal is Reader in Strategy and Business Analysis, Royal Holloway
Adam Leaver is Lecturer in Business Analysis, Manchester Business School
Michael Moran is WJM MacKenzie Professor, the University of Manchester
Adriana Nilsson, Post Doctoral Fellow, Manchester Business School
Karel Williams, Professor of Accounting and Political Economy, Manchester Business School

After the Great Complacence

Financial Crisis and the Politics of Reform

Ewald Engelen, Ismail Ertürk, Julie Froud, Sukhdev Johal, Adam Leaver, Mick Moran, Adriana Nilsson, and Karel Williams

Reviews and Awards

"Excellent and important. Absolutely essential reading for anyone wanting to understand how Britains financial sector got out of control."--Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands

"There have been many books about the financial crisis but very few as original and incisive as this one. This is a book which really ought to be read not only by academics but also by industry representatives and policy makers in order to make sure that the kind of hubris displayed in the early 2000s, born out of a curious mixture of elite miscalculation and misbegotten premises, never again becomes an article of faith."--Nigel Thrift, Vice-Chancellor, University of Warwick

"With the post-crisis financial reform process at an impasse the book looks at the historical causes of the crisis. Its focus on elite power control of central banking and regulation is a refreshing alternative to macro-economic narratives. This is essential and disturbing reading for anybody concerned about the relationship between financial power and democracy."--Paul Mason, Economics Editor, BBC Newsnight

"By taking a sideways swipe at the idea of the period before the financial crisis being the "great moderation" this book provides a convincing narrative for this being the "great complacence" instead. It suggests that this was a period of unprecedented hubris on the part of the political and economic elites, and that the resulting crisis was not an accident, not a disaster, not a catastrophe, nor a fiasco, but a genuine political debacle. The book argues that elites failed to appreciate the financial system as a bricolage of excess, disconnects, anomalies, and contradictions, with the result that this ramshackle assemblage collapsed around them and us with devastating consequences. Angry and compelling, this book demands to be read as a clear-headed alternative account of the run up to this critical period and its aftermath."--Grahame F. Thompson, Copenhagen Business School