Unsettled Account : : The Evolution of Banking in the Industrialized World since 1800 / / Richard S. Grossman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Grossman, Richard S.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2010]; ©2010
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Series: The Princeton Economic History of the Western World ; 33
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (408 p.) :; 44 line illus. 18 tables.

Commercial banks are among the oldest and most familiar financial institutions. When they work well, we hardly notice; when they do not, we rail against them. What are the historical forces that have shaped the modern banking system? In Unsettled Account, Richard Grossman takes the first truly comparative look at the development of commercial banking systems over the past two centuries in Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, and Australia. Grossman focuses on four major elements that have contributed to banking evolution: crises, bailouts, mergers, and regulations. He explores where banking crises come from and why certain banking systems are more resistant to crises than others, how governments and financial systems respond to crises, why merger movements suddenly take off, and what motivates governments to regulate banks. Grossman reveals that many of the same components underlying the history of banking evolution are at work today. The recent subprime mortgage crisis had its origins, like many earlier banking crises, in a boom-bust economic cycle. Grossman finds that important historical elements are also at play in modern bailouts, merger movements, and regulatory reforms. Unsettled Account is a fascinating and informative must-read for anyone who wants to understand how the modern commercial banking system came to be, where it is headed, and how its development will affect global economic growth.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Tables -- Preface -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. The Origins of Banking -- Chapter 3. Banking Crises -- Chapter 4. Rescuing the Banking System: Bailouts, Lenders of Last Resort, and More Extreme Measures -- Chapter 5. Merger Movements -- Chapter 6. Regulation -- Chapter 7. Banking Evolution in England -- Chapter 8. Banking Evolution in Sweden -- Chapter 9. Banking Evolution in the United States -- Chapter 10. Constrained and Deregulated Banking in the Twentieth Century and Beyond -- Appendixes -- Bibliography -- Index