Econ: Berlin, 2009, 352 pages, three editions.
Hans-Werner Sinn on lemons, old cars and Lehman certificates
The American banking system is in ruins. Germany’s banks are limping along. In Eastern Europe a time bomb is ticking. Whole countries are about to go bankrupt. Hans-Werner Sinn explains in his book how the financial system became a playing field for gamblers and analyses the reasons for the crisis: the failure of the rating agencies, the regulating officials, the banks and not least American real-estate policies. He also presents a master plan for rebuilding the financial market.
Publishers' Information
In this book, Hans-Werner Sinn analyses the current financial crisis. He explains how bankers became gamblers, and scrutinizes the dubious role played by the rating agencies as well as the involvement of German banks.
Sinn not only looks to the past, however, but also identifies the constructional flaws of the German rescue package and comments on the remaining risks. He rejects state assistance for companies and concretely defines the long-term legal framework for a healthy banking system: Sinn demands that banks be required to hold considerably more capital reserves for their transactions in order to induce them to return to a more sustainable business model. He also insists on an approval system for new financial products, a prohibition of short selling and a reorientation away from the American accounting system (IFRS) to the German minimum value principle.
Sinn’s short but forceful treatise is, as always, comprehensible and precisely formulated, and offers material for lively discussions
Details
Kasino-Kapitalismus. Wie es zur Finanzkrise kam, und was jetzt zu tun ist
Hans-Werner Sinn
Econ: Berlin, 2nd edition, 2009, 352 p. (CLOTH).
ISBN-13: 9783430200844, € 22,90.
Paperback:
Ullstein, 1st edition, June 2010, 472 p.
ISBN: 978-3-548-37303-4, € 12,95
Order via www.amazon.de or www.hugendubel.de
Ifo Press Release
An Essay by Hans-Werner Sinn (in German)
Weltwirtschaft in der Krise, Ein Essay von Hans-Werner Sinn, Radio-Beitrag, NDR Info, Das Forum, 29.07.2009.