“A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of ‘08 and the Descent into Depression,” by Richard A. Posner; Harvard University Press, 368 pages

The Honorable Richard A. Posner, a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School, first gained prominence in the 1980’s as a leader of a scholarly movement that analyzed legal questions through the prism of free-market economics.  In his latest book, “A Failure of Capitalism,” he offers a meticulous overview of the recent financial crisis and attributes its origins to the absence of rational government oversight, and to the rational (and to be expected) self-interest of private actors who took advantage of the economic environment and deficient regulatory framework.  To resolve the crisis and prevent its repetition, Posner advocates that the government should impose more intensive regulation, substantially increase deficit spending, prop up the banking industry, reform the current regulatory framework and relieve mortgagors of some of the burden of their mortgages.  We provide a detailed review of Posner’s book.

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