Sudip Bandyopadhyay’s Blog

As a recent World Bank report makes clear, hard times accentuate the importance of kith and kin. Nowhere is this more true than in developing countries, where automatic stabilisers are weak and vulnerability is high. Support from friends and family abroad is more constant than fragile states and footloose businesses.  In the boom years, development [...]

What is the future for credit ratings agencies and how should they be treated under the new system of financial market regulation evolving internationally? These questions have been hotly debated in recent months and a consensus is now emerging. The European Union is close to finalizing legislation to register and regulate ratings firms for the [...]

It looks as though the international financial crisis has now given way to the international economic crisis that it caused.  Japan gives the best evidence.  Japan’s banks did not, as a rule, load up on toxic US mortgage debt.  Yet the crisis affected the country deeply.  For many years while leverage was easily available, the [...]

“All causes are beginnings,” wrote Aristotle in Metaphysics.  The financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007 has produced the biggest global financial, economic &  liquidity shock since the 1930s. As a conequence,  so much taxpayers money is being spent in US and Europe on bailing out the banks that many of them, once [...]

“History demonstrates conclusively that a modern economy cannot grow if its financial system is not operating effectively.” So said Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, last  week in London.  It sounds obvious, but it is also fundamental - and for three reasons. First, banks allow people to pay each other easily - without them commerce would [...]