Hidden Collective Factors in Speculative Trading A Study in Analytic
What are the roots of the present economic crisis? The book shows that the factors commonly mentioned (e. g. subprime loans, fall in housing prices) have occurred in the past and therefore cannot account for the severity of the present crisis. There must
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Bertrand M. Roehner
Hidden Collective Factors in Speculative Trading A Study in Analytical Economics Second Edition
Professor Bertrand M. Roehner University of Paris 6 LPTHE 4 place Jussieu F-75005 Paris France [email protected]
ISBN 978-3-642-03047-5 e-ISBN 978-3-642-03048-2 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-03048-2 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009932723 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2001, 2009 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: WMX Design GmbH, Heidelberg Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
History for most beginning economists seems to begin in 1945. How to imbue students with a thirst to learn how the present relates to the past is not obvious. Anna Jacobson Schwartz (1995)
The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1915)
Preface to the second edition
For the present edition four chapters have been added which form the fourth part at the end of the book1 . Entitled “The triumph of neoliberalism”, the new part explains how the implementation worldwide of the neoliberal agenda paved the way for the present crisis. As a matter of fact, the evidence provided in chapter 9 suggests that the present crisis already began to build up in the mid-1970s. It is around 1975 that (real) US wages reached a peak-level they would never regain in following decades. It was also around 1975 that the number of strikes began to fall sharply. The mid-1970s also marked the beginning of a huge inflow of immigrants (in large part of Hispanic origin) into the United States. The inflated supply of labor depressed wages and this had the consequence that consumption could be increased only by an unprecedented development of credit. Perhaps the reader may think that to blame the prevailing economic system for the unfolding depression is a fairly common and all too easy temptation. In fact, the author did not wait until 2009 to question the neoliberal creed and to take it to task2 . Moreover, it can be observed that even at the present time of writing there are but few voices in the media who establish a link between the roots
