This book asks a fundamental question, that is, whether "somebody in charge" could have prevented or solved the problem leading up to our current financial crisis. This book explores and answers that question from a scholarly and academic economic viewpoint.

Could the financial crisis have been prevented with better leadership?

Introduction: Adult Supervision PART I: THE LIMITS OF AUTHORITY Social Complexity The Impossibility of Planning The Inconvenient Individual The Tribe and the Great Society PART II: ARE RECESSIONS POSSIBLE?   Business Cycles and Crashes An Economist in Wonderland Classical Economics Recessions Happen  PART III: MACROECONOMIC CONTROVERSIES The Old Idea of Underconsumption Keynes's Ideas: A Brief Summary Price Adjustments Multiplying Bread and Fish Meaningless Aggregates Information and Coordination Government Activism More Recent Theories of the Business Cycle PART IV: THE MIXED ECONOMY A Failure of Capitalism?  Government Revenues and Expenditures Regulation and Control The Welfare State Businessmen as Domestic Animals PART V: FINANCIAL DEREGULATION: AN URBAN LEGEND Lax Regulation Deregulation U.S. Banks in a World Perspective Necessary Regulation?  PART VI: THE CRIME SCENE: ENVY OF THE WORLD Residential Home Market Driven by Government A Half-nationalized Residential Mortgage Market Securitization Subsidization of Risk The Collapse of the House of Cards Larger Consequences PART VII: MONETARY MEDDLING The Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle Some Doubts on the Austrian Interpretation of the Crisis Monetary Policy Played a Role On Balance: A Contributing Factor PART VIII: STATE ANIMAL SPIRITS State Greed Faddish Behavior and State Bubbles Regulatory failure Collectivism Power and Hubris Systemic risk Conclusion: Something Must Be Done Bibliography Name Index Topics Index Charts