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Press Release

Friday 8 August 2008

The Origin of Financial Crises

Harriman House

Boom-bust cycle sheds light on credit crunch

"In the financial industry we tend only to ask 'What will the central bank do?' Here, I'm asking 'What should the central banks do?'"
Dr. George Cooper, August 2008

Why do we find ourselves in yet another financial crisis? What can today's events teach us in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes again? In his first book The Origin of Financial Crises, Dr. George Cooper attempts to answer these questions by looking at the processes which generate financial bubbles.

"In terms of its size and global reach today's credit crunch is probably the biggest financial crisis in history and still has some way to run. That said this is not a unique event, it's following a well trodden boom-bust pattern which, as I've tried to explain in the book, is an inherent feature of the financial system. It has been the same story throughout history going right back to the South Sea bubble and before" says Dr. Cooper.

He continues: "Whatâ€™s made this crisis particularly severe is that the cult of 'market efficiency' has made it impossible for central bankers and policy makers to do their job properly. The cult of market efficiency has lead to all sorts of daft policies and ideas, particularly that central banks should ignore asset price bubbles."

Dr. Cooper believes that the nationalisation of Northern Rock and the government's latest injection of Â£3 billion of tax payer's money into the bank represents the thin end of the wedge:

"I expect that the tax payer will find itself footing a much larger bill before this crisis is over. Most likely the government will be forced to resort to a 1970's style monetisation in order to shore up its own balance sheet" he comments.

Ends

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. George Cooper is a fund manager at Alignment Investors. He was born in Sunderland and studied at Durham University. He has worked for Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and as the London head of interest rate research at JPMorgan.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

More details can be found online at: www.harriman-house.com/originfinancialcrises

For further information on this book or its author, please contact Helen McCusker in the PR department at Harriman House:

Tel: +44 (0)1730 233885
Email: pr@harriman-house.com

Harriman House Ltd, 3A Penns Road, Petersfield, Hampshire, GU32 2EW

The Origin of Financial Crises

The Origin of Financial Crises
Central banks, credit bubbles and the efficient market fallacy
By George Cooper

Published: 26th August 2008

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