The Credit Rating Agencies and Their Contribution to the Financial Crisis

The credit rating agencies that dominated the ratings of mortgage‐backed securities were Moody's and Standard & Poor's. The two agencies rated some 4.3 trillion dollars of bonds as triple AAA, yet within a period of 18 months these same rating agencies downgraded these bonds to below investment grade. This paper seeks to show that the ratings agencies business model, the issuer pays approach, led to major conflicts of interest with both the ratings agencies unable to walk away from a rating. The evidence given by analysts to Congressional Inquiries confirms a cultural revolution within the rating agencies, with analysts feeling unable to question the quality of a rating. Analysts who were described as being awkward by issuers were removed from the rating process. In the meantime, the income for the rating agencies increased from 3 billion dollars to 6 billion dollars, with the CEOs of the rating agencies receiving incomes comparable to the incomes to the CEOs of investment banks.     

The Political Origins of the Financial Crisis: The Domestic and International Politics of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

For much of the last decade it was clear that the commercial operations of the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were creating an increasing systemic financial risk. That risk was compounded by the fact that the Japanese and Chinese central banks were acting as cheap creditors. The Bush administration and some Republicans in Congress made efforts from 2001 to create a tougher regulatory framework for Fannie and Freddie. Fannie and Freddie were able to defeat these attempts to constrain their operations by a four-fold political strategy involving campaign contributions to members of Congress, a vast lobbying apparatus, the cultivation of a political language around affordable housing for minorities, and abusing and smearing their regulator. Since Japan and China understood that the US government would have to assume Fannie and Freddie's liabilities in a crisis they had no incentive to expose the political fiction that it would not.     

金融危机对我国经济增长的影响及应对策略

金融危机通过贸易领域传导至我国,对我国出口、投资、消费产生了较大的影响,从而抑制了我国的经济增长。我国经济增长除受到外因作用而放缓之外,还受到我国自身经济结构不合理、发展方式不科学的制约。面对金融危机的挑战,政府应加快推进经济结构调整、切实转变经济发展方式,促使消费、投资、出口协调拉动经济增长,以保持我国经济健康平稳可持续增长。     

An Obituary for the Third Way: The Financial Crisis and Social Democracy in Europe

Why has the financial crisis not served as an occasion for social democratic revival? It is because, with the ‘Third Way’, European social democracy became imbricated with the financial system in crisis to such an extent that it is in no position to offer an alternative to it. The financial crisis is the crisis of the Third Way. Furthermore, the Third Way was based on the faulty premise that it was possible to replicate USA's apparent success in the 1990s, which, however, was based on very particular conditions. The argument is pursued with reference to inter alia Third Way ideology, transatlantic relations, the political economy of capitalist variety, and the political sociology of mass parties.     

理性认识金融危机下我国中间阶层的作用

在全球性金融危机中,中国承受着巨大压力,一部分人认为,作为社会中流砥柱的中间阶层能够以其强劲的消费拉动中国经济,从而维护社会的稳定与发展。文章认为,在金融危机下,这不是一种理性的对待中间阶的态度,并从经济、政治和社会责任感三个角度,分析了在当前环境下这种观点是值得商榷的,随后,从不能正视中间阶层的现状,忽略中国社会发展的实情以及对中间阶层理解的偏差性等方面分析了持这种观点的原因。     

Risk and Financial Armageddon in Ireland: The Politics of the Galway Tent

This article examines Ireland's financial crisis. Thus far explanation has focused on individual or collective administrative failure: the office(r) of financial regulation singularly failed to scrutinise the banks sufficiently: it was a matter of poor risk management. While this article would agree that the (mis)management of risk was important to how the crisis unfolded, I argue that an explanation of why the crisis emerged demands an altogether different focus. Put simply, after financial regulatory reform, a reconfiguration of risk in politics took place as the locus of decision‐making about financial risk shifted from the realm of the political/legal (Cabinet/Central Bank/Department of Finance) to the economic/legal (retail banks, shareholders/consumers). It was a critical development, one that mirrored events taking place in the UK, upon which Ireland drew experience, for now assessments about risk undertaken by the banks demanded that intervention could be justified only on an ascertainable risk, not a theoretical uncertainty (or spurious fear). The evidentiary bar for intervention was therefore raised, removing the precautionary instinct implicit in the prudential governance of Central Banks.     

The State of American Federalism, 2005: Federalism Resurfaces in the Political Debate

After several years during which federalism was rarely a prominentor explicit issue in political debates, it was in several waysthrust into the public consciousness in 2005. It was not thatthe president or Congress ceased sacrificing state and localinterests to substantive policy goals, as shown by the costlyREAL ID Act, stringent new federal requirements in the TemporaryAid to Needy Families reauthorization, and congressional interventionin the Terri Schiavo case. However, Hurricane Katrina, and particularlythe delayed and ineffective intergovernmental response, generatedsubstantial debate about the appropriate federal role in disasterrelief. In addition, state and local governmental oppositionto the No Child Left Behind Act intensified and generated significantattention during the year, particularly as a result of a Utahstatute asserting the precedence of state over federal law anda Connecticut lawsuit against the act. Meanwhile, state governmentscontinued to address a number of policy problems that federalofficials were unable or unwilling to confront, especially regardingenvironmental, health-care, and labor issues. Finally, althoughthe Supreme Court in 2005 continued its recent (2003–2004)trend of pulling back somewhat from its late-1990s Congress-curbingdecisions, federalism issues figured quite prominently in thesenate confirmation hearings for Chief Justice John Robertsand Justice Samuel Alito.     

政府公共危机处置的阶段划分与管理对策

公共危机管理是现代政府亟待加强的重要职能之一,为了提高政府公共危机的管理能力,应当科学认识政府危机管理的全过程,正确处置危机管理程序.政府危机管理依据工作重点的不同可分为储备、预警、控制和恢复4大阶段,针对政府危机处置的程序,可以从10个方面加强管理.     

Symbolic Citizenship,Nationalism and the Distant State: The United States Congress in the 1996 Debate on Immigration Reform

Using a framework which is based on T. H. Marshall's Citizenship and Social Class , the article analyzes concepts of citizenship as they emerged in the 1996 debates of the United States Congress which resulted in the passage of important welfare and immigration reform laws. The discussions revealed that a majority of congressional politicians supported a citizenship ideal that relied primarily on an individuals' status as taxpayer, worker and member of a nuclear family and remained relatively distant to the nation state. The legislation passed as a result of these debates represents the attempt to use state power to maintain immigrants' distance from the state.     

The March Towards Post‐Democracy,Ten Years On

Events since I published my book Post‐democracy in 2004 suggest that democracy continues to decline in effectiveness in those parts of the world where it has been most strongly established. The global financial crisis, the consequent euro crisis, the likely shape of a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and growing evidence of the political power of giant mass media corporations all suggest that the dominant forces in today's politics are not those of democratic will. Movements like Syriza in Greece possibly suggest a democratic reawakening, but that is too early to determine. Meanwhile, it is important also to be aware of democracy's limits, and to try to resolve the problem of post‐democracy by extending its reach beyond its competence.     

Comparative Analysis of Unemployment in Austria,Greece and Serbia During the Crisis

The aim of the paper is to understand the impact of world financial crisis on unemployment rate. In spite of that, Austria＇s and Greece＇s unemployment trends have been analyzed and compared in periods before and during the present world financial crisis and their relation has been used in order to understand ways of employment improvement in Serbia. In the period of 1998-2006, unemployment rate in Greece was 2.5 times higher than in Austria. The highest range difference was in 1999--8.01%, while the lowest was in 2006--4.15%. During the period of the crisis, unemployment rate in Greece has been nearly six times higher than in Austria. The gap between these countries is getting wider over the years. At the beginning of the financial crisis, the difference between percentage of unemployed citizens in Austria and Greece was at the lowest level--3.86%. Then from 2008, unemployment rate in Greece has been increasing rapidly and finally exploded during the observed year. It has rapid growth that peaked 26% in September 2012, which is more than 2.5 times higher than the average unemployment rate in the EU. Youth unemployment also increased markedly in Greece, where 56.4% young adults looking for a job cannot find one. On the other side, Austria＇s labour market performs very well, which is reflected in one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU. In Serbia, situation is much worse than the mentioned countries above and it could not be concluded that it is just caused by the crisis. Unemployment in Serbia has deeper roots. Periods of wars, economic sanctions, and hyperinflation, as well as the transition process from the centrally planned to the market economy caused great number of jobs to be lost. Even though GDP （Gross Domestic Product） growth is expected in years to come, employment rate will not follow that trend and unemployment will remain serious problems for many countries in future.     

Public Opinion and the Depth of Labour's Crisis

Labour's current problems are the culmination of long‐term trends flowing from the rising cost of tax‐funded services and welfare and voters’ mounting resistance to higher taxes to pay for them. As a result of this, there is now a big gulf between the attitudes of Labour party members, and in particular the supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, and Labour voters—and an even wider gulf with the extra voters Labour needs to win a future election. This gulf is also wide in relation to a range of other issues, including immigration, education and economic ideology. For Labour to return to government, it needs not just to narrow the gulf in policy, but to persuade voters of its ‘valence’ virtues of trust and competence—qualities in relation to which Labour currently lags the Conservatives by large margins.     

The New World of Crises and Crisis Management: Implications for Policymaking and Research

In recent years, we have witnessed a series of spectacular crises and disasters: 9/11, Madrid and London, the Asian tsunami, the Mumbai attacks, the implosion of the financial system—the world of crises and disasters seems to be changing. This special issue explores how these crises and disasters are changing and what governments can do to prepare. This opening article defines critical concepts, sketches a theoretical perspective, offers key research findings, and introduces the contributions to the special issue.     

State Governance and Financial Market Integration: The Politics and Consequences of Interstate Banking Deregulation

This study examines the debates surrounding interstate bankingreform in the 1980sand the effect of geographic deregulationon the availability of credit in the stales. Deregulation doeshave a significant and positive impact on the amount of totalcommercial and industrial loans made by banks. The pro and conarguments about deregulation are then reconsidered in lightof this finding. The study concludes that states can help stimulateeconomic growth through regulatory policy, though the totalimpact is relatively small. This research also suggests thatthe veracity of policy arguments can be judged by the richnessof the institutional context in which they are grounded.     

The State of American Federalism, 2001-2002: Resilience in Response to Crisis

The past year has been one of repeated shocks to governmentand the larger society. Terrorist attacks in New York City andWashington, D. C., the burst of the dot.com bubble in the stockmarket, a wave of corporate scandals, and a slowdown in theeconomy posed severe problems for officials of all governmentsin the federal system. The combined effects of the war on terrorismand the economic turmoil forced federal policymakers to createnew agencies and to enact new policies. State and local governmentsalso responded to the multiple shocks with a variety of initiatives,often independent of Washington. Instead of a move toward centralizationthat might have been predicted as a consequence of the seriousshocks, all elements of the American federal system demonstrateda capacity and energy to marshal resources in a time of urgency.     

The British Regulatory State under the Coalition Government: Volatile Stability Continued

What have been the effects of coalition government on the British regulatory state? This article argues that the politics of regulation have been largely about a continuation of existing patterns, namely volatile stability rather than more far‐reaching change. The British regulatory state continues to be defined by boundary conflicts between the world of ‘politics’ and ‘regulation’, by conflicting calls for centralisation and decentralised autonomy, and by tensions between the wish to ‘reduce’ regulation and the realisation of inherent complexities.