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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.
  • Can Government Contain the Economic Crisis?

    Prof. Andrew Metrick, director of the Yale Program on Financial Stability, says that fighting a crisis is different from economic policymaking in normal times; governments need to be exceptionally generous and not get bogged down in stringent processes that keep money from getting to those in need.

    Closed businesses in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in August 2020. Photo: Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images.
  • A Federal Program Is Supposed to Keep Midsize Businesses Afloat. Why Isn’t It Reaching Them?

    Yale SOM’s William English explains how the Main Street Lending Program fits into the array of federal stimulus efforts and offers proposals for making it work better.

    The door to a business with a sign reading "Closed due to cororavirus until further notice"
  • Faculty Viewpoints: The Economic Policy Response

    In an online conversation, Yale faculty members discussed the steps already taken to prevent the COVID-19 crisis from turning into economic catastrophe, and the need for more effective healthcare policies.

    A food bank distributing food at an event on May 8, 2020, in Massapequa, New York. Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images.
  • Faculty Viewpoints: Preventing a Financial Crisis

    In an online event hosted by the Bank for International Settlement, Andrew Metrick, director of the Yale Program on Financial Stability, discussed the actions that governments have already taken to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from sparking a full-blown financial crisis, and the challenges still to come.

    The Bank of International Settlement in Basel
  • Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral

    Nobel Prize-winning Yale economist Robert Shiller examines how the stories we tell about our lives and our society can spread from person to person, changing shared perceptions of events and shaping economic behavior.

    Robert Shiller superimposed over images of newspapers from during the global financial crisis
  • Three Questions: Prof. Andrew Metrick on Paul Volcker’s Legacy

    Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, died on December 8 at age 92. Prof. Andrew Metrick reflects on Volcker’s contributions to the Fed and economic policy.

    Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker before a hearing in August 1980. Photo: James K. W. Atherton/The Washington Post via Getty Images.
  • To Prevent Financial Crises, Regulate Short-Term Debt

    Yale SOM’s Gary Gorton argues that financial crises happen because short-term lending, while essential to the economy, is also vulnerable to panic when parties lose confidence in each other. In a new paper, Gorton proposes a method of regulating short-term debt and preventing future crises.

    A run on the National Penny Bank in London in 1888. Image: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
  • How Leverage Turns Market Corrections into Crashes

    Leverage-induced fire sales contributed to the worst stock market crashes in history. Prof. Kelly Shue studied account-level data from the Chinese market crash in 2015 to illuminate how much leverage matters.

    A stock exchange in Huaibei, China, in August 2015.
  • Lessons for the Crisis Fighters

    Yale SOM’s Andrew Metrick and the Yale Program on Financial Stability are studying the global financial crisis of 2007-09, working to create the knowledge and tools to prepare the next generation of policymakers who find themselves in the eye of a monetary maelstrom.

    The New York Stock Exchange on September 17, 2008. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 449 points, a day after an $85 billion bailout of AIG. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images.
  • What Will Trigger the Next Financial Crisis?

    Experts offer their take on where the next crisis will come from. They’ve seen the risk, and it is us.

    Currency of various countries