Scoundrel or Scapegoat? A Reassessment of the Office of Thrift Supervision’s Performance Before the 2008 Financial Crisis

2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (10) ◽  
pp. 1396-1421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Rex
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Federal Reserve ◽  
Deposit Insurance ◽  
The Other ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial Reforms ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Federal Deposit Insurance ◽  
Do So ◽  
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

This research attempts to determine whether Congress was justified in shutting down the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. I do so by comparing its performance with that of the other federal banking regulators: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Reserve. Results show that the OTS is not consistently the worst performer across a variety of measures. This finding suggests it was unfairly scapegoated and that many of the problems attributed to the OTS still remain at the other agencies, despite financial reforms in 2010.

Historical Institutionalism and New Dimensions of Agency: Bankers, Institutions and the 2008 Financial Crisis

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 724-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Bell
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
The Other ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Institutional Constraint ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Run Up

This article argues that historical institutionalism has bifurcated into two competing accounts: one focused on institutional stasis and the other on change. A more encompassing theory that accounts for both processes is constructed using a more detailed account of agency – one that utilises key inputs from cognitive and social psychology. This can better account for the conditions under which institutional constraint or change occurs and is used to explain the variable behaviour of bankers in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

scholarly journals To Know or Better Not to

2017 ◽  
pp. 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela Fernandez Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Health Hazards ◽  
Societal Impact ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Social Character ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Do So

With an innovative perspective on the social character of ignorance production, agnotology has been a fruitful approach for understanding the social and epistemological consequences of the interaction between industry and scientific research. In this paper, I argue that agnotology, or the study of ignorance, contributes to a better understanding of commercially driven research and its societal impact, showing the ways in which industrial interests have reshaped the epistemic aims of traditional scientific practices, turning them into mechanisms of ignorance production. To do so, I examine some of the main contributions to agnotology and provide a taxonomy of practices of ignorance construction common in commercially driven research today. In particular, I present the tobacco industry’s campaign against the health hazards of smoking as a paradigmatic case of ignorance production, identifying five central strategies. I then argue that the same strategies have been used in three other cases—global warming, pharmaceuticals, and the 2008 financial crisis.

Hauntologizing the (un)foreseen present: The 2008 financial crisis in Antonio Muñoz Molina’s La noche de los tiempos and Todo lo que era sólido

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 324-335
Author(s):  
David Amezcua
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Narratives ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis

This article deals with Antonio Muñoz Molina’s La noche de los tiempos (2009) and Todo lo que era sólido (2013a) and provides an interdiscursive analysis of both works, aiming to highlight their thematic and affective connections. Similarly, I contend that these works belong in the fabric of cultural narratives around the 2008 financial crisis. On the other hand, the spectral nature of the narrators of both La noche de los tiempos and Todo lo que era sólido is scrutinized, departing from Derrida’s notion of hauntology. Finally, the role of metaphors in the construction of reality is examined, paying heed to Muñoz Molina’s lucid analysis of the dominant metaphors that were used during the years prior to the 2008 financial crisis. His analysis leads us to consider the necessity of creating a new narrative for Europe which helps shape and redefine a new sense of Europeanness.

scholarly journals Pigface masters of the universe: Whether it is the greed to blame for the financial crisis?

Sociologija ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
Predrag Krstic
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Psychological Approach ◽  
Single Factor ◽  
Popular Belief ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Modern Capitalism ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Individual Dimension ◽  
The Universe

First part of the paper presents and analyzes some of the main arguments, which support the popular belief that greed is to blame for the 2008 financial crisis. The second part lists the counter-arguments that challenge this position in two ways: one set of arguments claims that greed is either not the main and single factor, or that is not the culprit at all; the second set, on the other hand, states that the scope of its influence is undermined and underrepresented, as well as that it is not considered in its ?structural? but only individual dimension. The final part of the paper presents a specific socio-psychological approach that could elucidate the extent to which unregulated greed could cause economic breakdowns. In addition, this approach attempts to question and operationally thematise implicit laws of modern capitalism with regard to both the recurring ups and downs that characterize it and the contradictory understanding and reception of the concept of acquisition, upon which it tend to built society.

Mathematics without Apologies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Harris
Keyword(s):  
Number Theory ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
First Century ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Dinner Party ◽  
Mathematical Life ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Guided Tour

What do pure mathematicians do, and why do they do it? Looking beyond the conventional answers, this book offers an eclectic panorama of the lives and values and hopes and fears of mathematicians in the twenty-first century, assembling material from a startlingly diverse assortment of scholarly, journalistic, and pop culture sources. Drawing on the author's personal experiences as well as the thoughts and opinions of mathematicians from Archimedes and Omar Khayyám to such contemporary giants as Alexander Grothendieck and Robert Langlands, the book reveals the charisma and romance of mathematics as well as its darker side. In this portrait of mathematics as a community united around a set of common intellectual, ethical, and existential challenges, the book touches on a wide variety of questions, such as: Are mathematicians to blame for the 2008 financial crisis? How can we talk about the ideas we were born too soon to understand? And how should you react if you are asked to explain number theory at a dinner party? The book takes readers on an unapologetic guided tour of the mathematical life, from the philosophy and sociology of mathematics to its reflections in film and popular music, with detours through the mathematical and mystical traditions of Russia, India, medieval Islam, the Bronx, and beyond.

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