Social Finance

<p>How do market participants construct stable markets?&nbsp; Why do crises that seem inevitable after-the-fact routinely take market participants by surprise?&nbsp; What forces trigger financial panics, and why does uncertainty lead to market volatility?&nbsp; How do economic elites respond to financial distress, and why are some regulatory interventions more effective than others?&nbsp; <i>Social Finance: Shadow Banking during the Global Financial Crisis</i> answers these questions by presenting a new, economic conventions-based model of financial crises.&nbsp; This model emerges from a theoretical synthesis of several intellectual traditions, including Keynesian epistemology, Hyman Minsky’s asset market theory, economic sociology, and international relations theory.&nbsp; <i>Social Finance</i> uses this new paradigm to explain instability in the global shadow banking system during the global financial crisis. &nbsp;And it presents the results of interviews with some of the world’s leading investors – who saw over $2 trillion in annual order flows and managed over $160 billion in assets – to provide first-hand accounts of markets in crisis.&nbsp; Written in accessible prose, <i>Social Finance</i> will appeal to a broad audience of academics, policymakers, and practitioners interested in understanding the drivers of financial stability in the twenty-first century.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p></p>