IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/21104.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The financial crisis: an inside view

Author

Listed:
  • Swagel, Phillip

Abstract

This paper reviews the policy response to the 2007–09 financial crisis from the perspective of a senior Treasury official at the time. Government agencies faced severe constraints in addressing the crisis: lack of legal authority for potentially helpful financial stabilization measures, a Congress reluctant to grant such authority, and the need to act quickly in the midst of a market panic. Treasury officials recognized the dangers arising from mounting foreclosures and worked to facilitate limited mortgage modifications, but going further was politically unacceptable because public funds would have gone to some irresponsible borrowers. The suddenness of Bear Stearns’ collapse in March 2008 made rescue necessary and led to preparation of emergency options should conditions worsen. The Treasury saw Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s rescue that summer as necessary to calm markets, despite the moral hazard created. After Lehman Brothers failed in September, the Treasury genuinely intended to buy illiquid securities from troubled institutions but turned to capital injections as the crisis deepened.

Suggested Citation

  • Swagel, Phillip, 2009. "The financial crisis: an inside view," MPRA Paper 21104, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:21104
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/21104/1/MPRA_paper_21104.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter J. Wallison & Bert Ely & Thomas H. Stanton, 2004. "Privatizing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks: Why and How," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 42378, September.
    2. Markus K. Brunnermeier, 2008. "Deciphering the Liquidity and Credit Crunch 2007-08," NBER Working Papers 14612, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Gary Gorton, 2008. "The panic of 2007," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 131-262.
    4. John C. Williams & John B. Taylor, 2009. "A Black Swan in the Money Market," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 58-83, January.
    5. Hoshi, Takeo & Kashyap, Anil K, 2010. "Will the U.S. bank recapitalization succeed? Eight lessons from Japan," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 398-417, September.
    6. Lawrence R. Cordell & Karen E. Dynan & Andreas Lehnert & J. Nellie Liang & Eileen Mauskopf, 2008. "The incentives of mortgage servicers: myths and realities," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2008-46, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    7. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2008. "Trusting the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2557-2600, December.
    8. Augustin Landier & Kenichi Ueda, 2009. "The Economics of Bank Restructuring; Understanding the Options," IMF Staff Position Notes 2009/12, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Augustin Landier & Mr. Kenichi Ueda, 2009. "The Economics of Bank Restructuring: Understanding the Options," IMF Staff Position Notes 2009/012, International Monetary Fund.
    10. Mark E. Schweitzer & Guhan Venkatu, 2009. "Adjustable-rate mortgages and the Libor surprise," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Jan.
    11. Zingales, Luigi & Posner, Eric A, 2009. "The Housing Crisis and Bankruptcy Reform: The Prepackaged Chapter 13 Approach," CEPR Discussion Papers 7204, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Lawrence M. Ausubel & Peter Cramton, 2008. "A Troubled Asset Reverse Auction," Papers of Peter Cramton 08tara, University of Maryland, Department of Economics - Peter Cramton, revised 2008.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas Philippon & Philipp Schnabl, 2011. "Informational Rents, Macroeconomic Rents, and Efficient Bailouts," NBER Working Papers 16727, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Homar, Timotej & van Wijnbergen, Sweder J.G., 2017. "Bank recapitalization and economic recovery after financial crises," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 16-28.
    3. Thomas Philippon & Philipp Schnabl, 2013. "Efficient Recapitalization," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(1), pages 1-42, February.
    4. Michiel Bijlsma & Jeroen Klomp & Sijmen Duineveld, 2010. "Systemic risk in the financial sector; a review and synthesis," CPB Document 210.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    5. Kox, Henk L.M. & Leeuwen, George van, 2012. "Dynamic market selection in EU business services," MPRA Paper 41016, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Michael Diemer & Uwe Vollmer, 2015. "What makes banking crisis resolution difficult? Lessons from Japan and the Nordic Countries," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 5(2), pages 251-277, December.
    7. Hryckiewicz, Aneta, 2014. "What do we know about the impact of government interventions in the banking sector? An assessment of various bailout programs on bank behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 246-265.
    8. Michiel Bijlsma & Wim Suyker, 2008. "The credit crisis and the Dutch economy... in eight frequently asked questions," CPB Memorandum 210.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    9. Takeo Hoshi & Daiji Kawaguchi & Kenichi Ueda, 2021. "The Return of the Dead? The COVID-19 Business Support Programs in Japan (Forthcoming in Journal of Banking and Finance)," CARF F-Series CARF-F-513, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
    10. Stijn Claessens & M. Ayhan Kose, 2013. "Financial Crises: Explanations, Types and Implications," CAMA Working Papers 2013-06, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    11. Craig S. Hakkio & William R. Keeton, 2009. "Financial stress: what is it, how can it be measured, and why does it matter?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 94(Q II), pages 5-50.
    12. Arvind Krishnamurthy, 2010. "Amplification Mechanisms in Liquidity Crises," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 1-30, July.
    13. Campbell, Sean & Covitz, Daniel & Nelson, William & Pence, Karen, 2011. "Securitization markets and central banking: An evaluation of the term asset-backed securities loan facility," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(5), pages 518-531.
    14. Marco Pagano & Paolo Volpin, 2012. "Securitization, Transparency, and Liquidity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(8), pages 2417-2453.
    15. Miguel Faria-e-Castro & Joseba Martinez & Thomas Philippon, 2017. "Runs versus Lemons: Information Disclosure and Fiscal Capacity," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(4), pages 1683-1707.
    16. Zhiguo He & Wei Xiong, 2012. "Rollover Risk and Credit Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(2), pages 391-430, April.
    17. Agnès Bénassy-Quéré & Benoît Coeuré & Pierre Jacquet & Jean Pisani-Ferry, 2009. "The Crisis: Policy Lessons and Policy Challenges," Working Papers 2009-28, CEPII research center.
    18. Heider, F. & Hoerova, M. & Holthausen, C., 2009. "Liquidity Hoarding and Interbank Market Spreads : The Role of Counterparty Risk," Discussion Paper 2009-40 S, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    19. Frederic S. Mishkin, 2011. "Over the Cliff: From the Subprime to the Global Financial Crisis," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 49-70, Winter.
    20. Aït-Sahalia, Yacine & Andritzky, Jochen & Jobst, Andreas & Nowak, Sylwia & Tamirisa, Natalia, 2012. "Market response to policy initiatives during the global financial crisis," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 162-177.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    financial crisis; Treasury Department; TARP; housing; foreclosures; Lehman Brothers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E0 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General
    • N2 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:21104. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.