The death of capital [[electronic resource] ] : how creative policy can restore stability / / Michael E. Lewitt

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910809190603321
• Autore: Lewitt Michael E
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Hoboken, N.J., : John Wiley & Sons, c2010
• ISBN: 1-282-54842-5; 9786612548420; 0-470-62235-0; 0-470-62116-8
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (307 p.)
• Disciplina: 332/.041
• Soggetti: Capital; Capitalism - United States; Finance - United States; Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2009
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: The Death of Capital: How Creative Policy Can Restore Stability; Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction: The 2008 Crisis-Tragedy or Farce?; Seeds of Instability; A Word on Speculation; Financialization; The Corruption of Moral Sentiments; Low Rates and Lax Rules; The Global Liquidity Bubble; A Crisis of Confidence; Why Finance Matters; Global Threats Require Systemic Stability; A Few Words about This Book; Chapter 1: The Death of Capital; The Four Essential Characteristics of Capital; How Capital Dies; The Failure of Risk Management; Chapter 2: Capital Ideas; Adam Smith and the Tyranny of Crowds Karl Marx and the Origins of Opacity; John Maynard Keynes; Hyman Minsky; Lessons on Capital from the Masters; Chapter 3: Empty Promises; Promises Aren't What They Used to Be; The Digitalization of Promises; Collateralized Mortgage Obligations; HSBC Drinks the Mortgage Kool-Aid; A Fetish Is Not a Promise; Chapter 4: Financialization; Money Begetting Money; Power Begetting Power; Theories of Financialization; The Monetization of Values; Chapter 5: From Innovators to Undertakers; The History of ; Private Equity Funds; From Boom to Bust; Private Equity Fees: The New Agency Problem The Myth of Private Equity Returns; Men Behaving Badly; Private Equity and Cheap Debt: Birds of a Feather Flop Together; Private Equity Goes Public: A Study in the Oxymoronic; Taxing Labor as Capital; Calling Dr. Kervorkian?; Private Equity: The Long-Term Damage; Reform of Private Equity Firms; Chapter 6: Welcome to Jurassic Park; Isla Nublar; The New DNA of Finance; Warning Signs; Dinosaurs Turn on Their Makers; Bear Stearns: First Casualty; American International Group (AIG)-Second Casualty; The Bond Insurers-Third Casualty; Taming the Beasts (Regulating Credit Derivatives)Chapter 7: The Road to Hell; Satan in the Garden; Reverse Black Swans; Birth of the Prudent Man; The Fallacy of Diversification; Chapter 8: Finance after Armageddon; Obama Goes to Wall Street; Principles of Reform; Impose a Tax on Speculation; End Balkanized Regulation; Too Big to Fail; Improving Capital Adequacy; Reforming Monetary Policy; Enhancing Systemic Transparency; Conclusion: "This Is Later"; Notes; Bibliography and Other Sources; About the Author; Index
• Sommario/riassunto: In The Death of Capital, respected portfolio manager and longtime investment professional Michael Lewitt looks at how the U.S. economy has increasingly been dominated by short-term speculation rather than industrial expansion in recent years. These disastrous trends, described here as financialization, ignore the fact that capital itself is a highly unstable process rather than a fixed object or category. As a result of our failure to understand the true nature of capital, we have developed a financial and regulatory system that does exactly the opposite of what it should be doing-favor