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Financial Crises

Is Commercial Real Estate in for a Downturn…or a Crisis?

Commercial real estate downturns don’t typically create systemic threats. Yale SOM’s Andrew Metrick offers a nightmare scenario showing why this time might be different.

An empty ground-floor commercial space, seen through a window.
  • Private Equity Investors Helped Stabilize Failed Banks During the Financial Crisis

    A new study co-authored by Prof. Song Ma finds that during the financial crisis, private equity firms took on banks in poor health that other buyers didn’t want, and those banks performed relatively well under their new management.

    A sign with the logo removed outside a Jefferson, Missouri, branch of Premier Bank, which failed in 2010.
  • Is the Fed Ready for the Next Financial Crisis?

    Yale SOM’s June Rhee discusses how the lessons of the global financial crisis prepared policymakers for COVID, and what tools they’ll need for future crises.

    The Federal Reserve building, photographed through a black metal frame
  • How ‘Stablecoins’ Could Unleash Chaos

    Dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies are rapidly proliferating. But without regulation, these so-called stablecoins pose serious risks to the U.S. financial system, argue Yale SOM’s Gary B. Gorton and his co-author.

    An illustration of a bank supported by columns of precarious coins
  • Study: Margin Trading Causes Stock Prices to Drop in Concert

    During financial crises, stocks tend to fall together more than they should. A new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Heather Tookes suggests that margin trading plays a substantial role in driving this downward spiral.

    Mumbai's BSE stock exchange on March 9, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a plunge in stock prices. Photo: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
  • Should Governments Print Money to Make It through the Pandemic?

    Central banks should consider bona fide debt monetization—money-printing—to help their governments cover some of the costs of the pandemic, argue Greg Feldberg of the Yale Program on Financial Stability and Aidan Lawson, a former YPFS research associate.

    A sheet of dollar bills on a printing press
  • Awaiting the Will to Ensure Financial Market Stability

    In a conversation with Yale SOM’s Andrew Metrick, Paul Tucker, chair of the Systemic Risk Council and former deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England, says that financial markets are still facing serious stability risks.

    A detail of a photo of the Federal Reserve building
  • How is Mexico Navigating the COVID Financial Crisis?

    In a recent online conversation hosted by Yale SOM, Mexico’s chief central banker discussed the country’s response to the economic distress caused by COVID-19—the country’s third financial crisis in recent decades.

    The Banco de México in Mexico City.
  • We Need Better Data for Better Crisis-Fighting

    The market crash sparked by the COVID pandemic exposed the weaknesses in the financial data we collect, writes Greg Feldberg of the Yale Program on Financial Stability. Better financial data would enable more targeted efforts and better ex-post analysis.

    A digital collage of financial data
  • Is it Time to Shut Down the Fed’s COVID Stimulus Programs?

    Prof. Andrew Metrick, director of the Yale Program on Financial Stability, says that the four emergency lending programs recently shut down by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are an insurance policy that may be badly needed in 2021.

    The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C. Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
  • Holding Up a Mirror to the First Global Stock Bubble

    Yale SOM’s William Goetzmann, an expert in art and finance history, showed us satirical prints documenting the first global stock bubble, three centuries ago.

    An 18th-century print of a crowded street