All Fall Down traces the ways in which changes in financial structure and regulation eroded monetary control and led to historically high levels of debt relative to GDP in both developed and emerging economies. Rising stocks of debt drove the global financial system into crisis in 2008 when households, businesses, financial institutions and the public sector in some countries strained to generate sufficient income for debt service. The stagnation and fall in asset prices that followed began the process of unwinding that led to a run on the financial sector by the financial sector. This engaging examination describes critical developments that changed the structure of US financial markets as well as developments and innovations in US credit markets that created the context for crisis. It discusses the advent of dollar hegemony, the critical role of international reserves in generating credit, the emergence of the debt bubble in the 1980s and the mounting risks of debt in the new millennium. The author also proposes a systemic approach to monetary control, offering two new reform proposals. The analysis concludes that reforms are needed in order to support sustainable economic activity in the US and global economies. This volume will appeal to students and scholars of economics interested in international finance and banking, financial regulation and monetary policy implementation. It will also be of interest to business economists, lawyers, policymakers and journalists concerned with the effects of financial instability and involved in ongoing debates on financial and monetary reform.

Table of Contents:
Contents: 1. Introduction and Summary Part I: The Unraveling of the 1930s-Era Framework 2. The Euro Market Erodes US Financial Structure 3. Commercial Paper Guarantees and the Emergence of a Parallel Banking System 4. ERISA Moves Savings into Securities Markets Part II: Deregulation and Financial Innovation Create the Context for Crisis 5. An Overview of Financial Restructuring and its Consequences 6. Securitization 7. Weaving the Web of Interconnectedness 8. Opaque Markets and Opaque Balance Sheets 9. Growing Concentration Leads to "Too Big to Fail" 10. Regulating the Post-Crisis System 11. Mending the Financial Safety Net for Savers Part III: The Advent of Globalization 12. Dollar Hegemony 13. Foreign Exchange Reserves 14. An Overview of Developments in Global Financial Markets in the 1990s Part IV: Building Toward Crisis in the Global Economy 15. Concerns and Warnings 16. Crises in the Periphery of the Global System 17. Liquidity Expansion in the Period Before the Crisis Part V: Debt and the Collapse of Monetary Control 18. The Failure to Halt the Emergence and Growth of the Debt Bubble 19. Rising Imbalances in Credit Flows 20. Mounting Risks of the Continuing Debt Bubble in the New Millennium 21. How Eroding Monetary Tools Facilitated Debt Creation 22. Monetary Tools: What They Are and How They Function 23. The Inability of Capital Requirements to Prevent or Moderate Financial Crises 24. How Crisis Reshaped the Monetary Toolkit Part VI: An Agenda for Monetary Reform 25. Introducing a Systemic Approach 26. Creating a System-wide Asset-based Reserve System 27. Implementing Policy Under the Current and Proposed Systems 28. Implications of the Proposed System for the Conduct of Policy Part VII: Reforming the Privatized International Monetary System 29. Can Special Drawing Rights Replace the Dollar and Other National Currencies as a Reserve Asset? 30. Restructuring Flows of Private International Investment into Emerging and Developing Economies 31. Reforming the International Payments System Part VIII: Conclusion 32. Building Toward Crisis in the Global Economy — Again Bibliography Index