The financial system was brought to its knees because it had deteriorated into a casino. The financial crisis, which started in the US in 2007, spread across the entire globe. Huge depreciation losses on toxic papers put a strain on the European banks and forced them to scale back their involvement in riskier investments. This triggered a credit crunch in Europe that particularly affected the periphery countries. Suddenly private capital was no longer prepared to flow into these countries and to finance long-term foreign trade deficits. While the acute economic crises of 2008 and 2009 affected all countries, there were fundamental differences in the attempts made by various countries to pull out of the crisis. Those countries where the boom had previously been based in capital imports remained in a more or less serious crisis that is still ongoing today. Germany, by contrast, flourished after the crisis because German savings capital was invested at home again, where it triggered an investment boom. This web page features all of the publications by Hans-Werner Sinn on the financial market crisis.
Refereed scientific monographs
Casino Capitalism. How the Financial Crisis Came about and What Needs to Be Done Now, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010, 400 pages, second edition (Paperback) 2012. Korean edition, Ecopia, Korea, 2010, 421 pages. (Revised and updated translation of Kasino-Kapitalismus). To Amazon.
Reprints
Risk Taking, Limited Liability, and the Banking Crisis, Selected Reprints, Ifo Institute: Munich 2009, 200 pages.
Policy Contributions in Journals and Academic Volumes
"The Financial Crisis: The Way Forward - Introduction", CESifo Forum 11, 2010, No. 3, pp. 12-19 (Download, 1.6 MB).
"A new Glass-Steagall Act?", VOX, www.voxeu.org, March 4th, 2010.
"What can be learned from the banking crisis", VOX, www.voxeu.org, December 17th, 2008.
"The End of the Wheeling and Dealing", CESifo Forum 9 (4), 2008, pp. 3-5; (Download, 345 KB).
Short Policy Contributions and Newspaper Articles
"How to Save the Euro", The Wall Street Journal, April 20th, 2010, No. 55, p. 12.
"Insecure Securities", (ref. Project Syndicate December 2009), Business Day (Nigeria), The New Times (Rwanda), The Japan Times (Japan), The Korea Herald (Korea, South), Business World (Philippines), The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka), Die Presse (Austria), Vilaggazdasag (Hungary), Jornal De Negocios (Portugal), L'agefi (Switzerland), Jordan Times (Jordan).
"Plugging the Leaks" (ref. Project Syndicate October 2008), Ekonom (Czech Republic), Aripaev (Estonia), Danas (Serbia), Tyzden (Slovakia), The Japan Times (Japan), The Korea Herald (Korea, South), Business World (Philippines), Al Tijara (Bahrain), Bahrain Tribune (Bahrain), The Daily Star (Lebanon), L'Orient le Jour (Lebanon), Al Raya (Qatar), Al Jarida (Kuwait), Al Eqtisadiah (Saudi Arabia), Financial Week (USA).
"New regulations needed to curb bad banking", The Japan Times, April 30th, 2008.
"Lemon Banking" (ref. Project Syndicate April 2008), Börsen-Zeitung (Germany), L'Echo (Belgium), Dnevnik (Bulgaria), Poslovni Dnevnik (Croatia), Aripaev (Estonia), Taloussanomat (Finland), Vilaggazdasag (Hungary), Tageblatt (Luxembourg), Logos Press (Moldova), Het Financieele Dagblad (Netherlands), Diario Economico (Portugal), Tyzden (Slovakia), Expansion (Spain), L'Agefi (Switzerland), La Prensa (Panama), Al Tijaria (Bahrain), Al Jarida (Kuwait), Al Raya (Qatar), Diario Las Americas (USA), The International Economy (USA), Les Echos (Mali), The Australian Financial Review (Australia), The Independent (Bangladesh), The Financial Express (India), Jakarta Post (Indonesia), The Japan Times (Japan), The Korea Herald (Korea, South), Business World (Philippines).
"The Party is Over" (ref. Project Syndicate March 2008), Börsen-Zeitung (Germany), Die Presse (Austria), Dnevnik (Bulgaria), Vilaggazdasag (Hungary), Diario Economico (Portugal), Danas (Serbia), Finance (Slovenia), Expansion (Spain), L'Agefi (Switzerland), The Scotsman (United Kingdom), Al Tijaria (Bahrain), Al-Sabah Al-Jadeed (Iraq), Al Jarida (Kuwait), Times of Oman (Oman), Al Eqtisadiah (Saudi Arabia), Valor (Brazil), Ultima Hora (Paraguay), Les Echos (Mali), Standard Times (Sierra Leone), The Australian Financial Review (Australia), China Daily (China), Apple Daily (Hong Kong), Jakarta Post (Indonesia), The Japan Times (Japan), The Korea Herald (Korea, South), The Edge (Malaysia), Business World (Philippines), AKI-Press (Kyrgyzstan).
Newspaper Interviews and Discussions (since 2002)
"Alemania era la tortuga europea y se ha convertido en la gacela" (Germany was the European Turtle and Has Now Become its Gazelle), La Vanguardia, December 5th, 2010, p. 6..
"Why Germany Is Going to Prevail", institutionalinvestor.com, September 30th, 2010.
Ifo Viewpoints
Ifo Viewpoint No. 118: Basel III: Stricter and fairer, Oct 21, 2010.
Ifo Viewpoint No. 112: A new Glass-Steagall Act?, Feb 9, 2010.
Ifo Viewpoint No. 111: Insecure Securities: The Collapse of the US Securitization Market, Jan 19, 2010.
Ifo Viewpoint No. 105: Bad Banks and Bad Ideas, Jun 10, 2009.
Ifo Viewpoint No. 104: Stuffing the Goose Strategy, Apr 1, 2009.
Ifo Viewpoint No. 100: What Can be Learned from the Banking Crisis, Nov 4, 2008.
Ifo Viewpoint No. 99: Plugging the Leaks: What Caused the Banking Crisis, Oct 28, 2008.
Ifo Viewpoint No. 94: Lemon Banking, May 19, 2008.
Ifo Viewpoint No. 93: The German State Banks: Creative Destruction, May 8, 2008.
Ifo Viewpoint No. 92: The Party is Over, Mar 18, 2008.