Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World –– Interview with Adam Tooze

It’s been ten years since the 2008 financial crisis, and scholars and policy makers are still reflecting on its causes and effects. The world has gone through a series of tightening regulations and de-risking; the transparency and interdependence of the financial sector have improved… But is the crisis truly over? In 2018, 10 years after the crisis, a compelling analysis of what really happened was published –– "Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World."

Prof. Tooze teaches and researches widely in the fields of twentieth-century and contemporary history. From a start in modern German history with a special focus on the history of economics and economic history his interests have widened to take in a range of themes in political, intellectual and military history, across a canvass stretching from Europe across the Atlantic.

A few punchlines?

Using the national economic paradigm from the 20th century to explain the financial crisis is outdated. The “macrofinancial” revolution tries to re-map the global economy through interlocking corporate balance sheets and cash flows, and that’s a much more novel perspective.

The only place that we’re seeing growth dynamic enough and credit building up rapid enough to see anything remotely like the 2008 crisis would be China, though we’re not sure about its whiplash effects.

When you say “too big to fail” nowadays, you probably don’t even think of the banks anymore, and the attention has shifted to big techs and many other corporations.