Financial Crises, Panics and Regulation: 1837-2008

Markets and regulation continuously interact, often in unanticipated ways, to prevent or create financial crises, which inevitably impact the next iteration of the regulatory regime developed by Congress and regulators to oversee U.S. financial institutions, including banks, securities firms, insurance companies, mutual funds, nonbank financial companies and Government Sponsored Entities. This course will consider significant financial crises of the 20th and 21st Centuries including the Panic of 1907, the Great Depression, the 1989 Savings and Loan Crisis, the 1989 S&L and Bank Crisis, the Long Term Capital Management Crisis of 1998 and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. It will explore the legal, business, economic and regulatory factors that led up to and/or facilitated these crises and the responses that the Administrations, Congress and the regulators pursued in their aftermath. Students will be graded on a written paper and an oral presentation and defense of the paper.