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A Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Bloomberg Businessweek Book of the Year
Why our banking system is broken-and what we must do to fix it
New bank failures have been a rude awakening for everyone who believed that the banking industry was reformed after the Global Financial Crisis-and that we'd never again have to choose between massive bailouts and financial havoc. The Bankers' New Clothes uncovers just how little things have changed-and why banks are still so dangerous. Writing in clear language that anyone can understand, Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig debunk the false and misleading claims of bankers, regulators, politicians, academics, and others who oppose effective reform, and they explain how the banking system can be made safer and healthier. Thoroughly updated for a world where bank failures have made a dramatic return, this acclaimed and important book now features a new preface and four new chapters that expose the shortcomings of current policies and reveal how the dominance of banking even presents dangers to the rule of law and democracy itself. Anat Admati is a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She has written for the New York Times and the Financial Times and has been included in Time's 100 Most Influential People and Foreign Policy's 100 Leading Global Thinkers. Martin Hellwig is director emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn and former chair of the German Monopolies Commission and the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board. "More than four years after the financial meltdown devastated the economy, our banking system remains resistant to reform and riddled with risk. The Bankers' New Clothes challenges us to question the status quo and to think anew about the transformative changes in banking that are needed to serve the public interest. This work should spur a long-overdue debate on real banking reform."-Phil Angelides, chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission
"Providing a sound analysis of the role of banking and its regulation in the public interest, The Bankers' New Clothes is free of technical jargon and widely accessible to all policymakers and all who are concerned about banking's future, which is virtually everybody. The book's clear exposition conveys a deep understanding of the pervasive place of banking in the economy and stands in opposition to the self-interested forces of obscurity."-Kenneth J. Arrow, Nobel Laureate in Economics
"The Bankers' New Clothes underscores that there is perhaps no reform more important and central to a stable financial system than capping the ability of financial institutions to take excessive risks using other people's money."-Sheila C. Bair, author of Bull by the Horns and former chairperson of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
"The Bankers' New Clothes accomplishes the near impossible by translating the arcane world of banking regulation into plain English. In doing so, it exposes as false the self-serving arguments against meaningful financial reform advanced by Wall Street executives and the captured politicians who serve their interests. This revelatory must-read shreds bankers' scare tactics while offering commonsense reforms that would protect the general public from unending cycles of boom, bust, and bailout."-Neil Barofsky, author of Bailout
"Anyone interested in the past, present, or future of banking and financial crises should read The Bankers' New Clothes. Admati and Hellwig provide a forceful and accessible analysis of the recent financial crisis and offer proposals to prevent future financial failures. While controversial, these proposals-whether you agree or disagree with them-will force you to think through the problems and solutions."-Michael J. Boskin, former chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers
"With extraordinary clarity, Admati and Hellwig ex
Why our banking system is broken-and what we must do to fix it
New bank failures have been a rude awakening for everyone who believed that the banking industry was reformed after the Global Financial Crisis-and that we'd never again have to choose between massive bailouts and financial havoc. The Bankers' New Clothes uncovers just how little things have changed-and why banks are still so dangerous. Writing in clear language that anyone can understand, Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig debunk the false and misleading claims of bankers, regulators, politicians, academics, and others who oppose effective reform, and they explain how the banking system can be made safer and healthier. Thoroughly updated for a world where bank failures have made a dramatic return, this acclaimed and important book now features a new preface and four new chapters that expose the shortcomings of current policies and reveal how the dominance of banking even presents dangers to the rule of law and democracy itself. Anat Admati is a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She has written for the New York Times and the Financial Times and has been included in Time's 100 Most Influential People and Foreign Policy's 100 Leading Global Thinkers. Martin Hellwig is director emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn and former chair of the German Monopolies Commission and the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board. "More than four years after the financial meltdown devastated the economy, our banking system remains resistant to reform and riddled with risk. The Bankers' New Clothes challenges us to question the status quo and to think anew about the transformative changes in banking that are needed to serve the public interest. This work should spur a long-overdue debate on real banking reform."-Phil Angelides, chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission
"Providing a sound analysis of the role of banking and its regulation in the public interest, The Bankers' New Clothes is free of technical jargon and widely accessible to all policymakers and all who are concerned about banking's future, which is virtually everybody. The book's clear exposition conveys a deep understanding of the pervasive place of banking in the economy and stands in opposition to the self-interested forces of obscurity."-Kenneth J. Arrow, Nobel Laureate in Economics
"The Bankers' New Clothes underscores that there is perhaps no reform more important and central to a stable financial system than capping the ability of financial institutions to take excessive risks using other people's money."-Sheila C. Bair, author of Bull by the Horns and former chairperson of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
"The Bankers' New Clothes accomplishes the near impossible by translating the arcane world of banking regulation into plain English. In doing so, it exposes as false the self-serving arguments against meaningful financial reform advanced by Wall Street executives and the captured politicians who serve their interests. This revelatory must-read shreds bankers' scare tactics while offering commonsense reforms that would protect the general public from unending cycles of boom, bust, and bailout."-Neil Barofsky, author of Bailout
"Anyone interested in the past, present, or future of banking and financial crises should read The Bankers' New Clothes. Admati and Hellwig provide a forceful and accessible analysis of the recent financial crisis and offer proposals to prevent future financial failures. While controversial, these proposals-whether you agree or disagree with them-will force you to think through the problems and solutions."-Michael J. Boskin, former chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers
"With extraordinary clarity, Admati and Hellwig ex