Financial Innovation - Too Much or Too Little?

In assigning blame for the recent economic crisis, many have pointed to the proliferation of new, complex financial products--mortgage securitization in particular--as being at the heart of the meltdown. The prominent economists take a more nuanced view of financial innovation. They argue that it was not too much innovation but too little innovation--and the lack of balance between debt-related products and asset-related products--that lies behind the crisis. The book, which includes two contributions from Robert Shiller as well as a discussion of Shiller¿s ¿MacroMarkets¿ tool, considers the key ingredients of financial innovation from both academia and industry; the positive potential but also the risks of financial innovation and the influence of producers on consumers; rationality- and behavioral-based viewpoints on the causes of the recent crisis; the link between the cycle of financial innovation and financial crisis; and how future innovation-linked crises might be avoided.