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47 Ind. L. Rev. 37 (2014)
Revisiting the Causes of the Financial Crisis

handle is hein.journals/indilr47 and id is 53 raw text is: REVISITING THE CAUSES OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS ANTONY PAGE' ABSTRACT Much has been written on the legal causes of the financial crisis and its aftermath, often referred to as the Great Recession. Presumably the debate will continue for many years to come, much as scholars continue to debate the causes of the Great Depression. Lost, however, in the descriptions of arcane laws and complex derivative financial products, is a relatively brief and straightforward account of the crisis and its most likely causes for interested lawyers, law students, or graduate students who are not specialists and do not want to become specialists. This Essay, based on a presentation at the Indiana Law Review's 2013 Symposium, Law and the Financial Crisis, aims to provide such an overview. INTRODUCTION Not surprisingly, an enormous amount has been written on the causes of the financial crisis from both academics' and others.2 Even the federal government's * Antony Page is the Vice Dean and a Professor of Law at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. This Essay is based on a presentation at the Indiana Law Review's Symposium, Law andtheFinancial Crisis, at a session entitled Examining Law's Role in Causing the Financial Crisis. Thanks and appreciation to Andrea Kochert, Symposium Editor, Bob Goode, Executive Managing Editor, Professor Nicholas Georgakopoulos, Professor Frank Sullivan, and panelists Professor J. Robert Brown, Mr. Peter J. Wallison, and Professor Arthur Wilmarth, Jr. 1. Prominent professors writing on the crisis include GEORGE A. AKERLOF & ROBERT A. SHILLER, ANIMAL SPIRITS: How HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY DRIVES THE ECONOMY, AND WHY IT MATTERS FOR GLOBAL CAPITALISM (2009); ALAN S. BLINDER, AFTER THE MUSIC STOPPED: THE FINANCIAL CRISIS, THE RESPONSE, AND THE WORK AHEAD (2013); Ross GARNAUT & DAVID LLEWELLYN-SMITH, THE GREAT CRASH OF 2008 (2009); GARY B. GORTON, SLAPPED BY THE INVISIBLE HAND: THE PANIC OF 2007 (2010); SIMON JOHNSON & JAMES KWAK, 13 BANKERS: THE WALL STREET TAKEOVER AND THE NEXT FINANCIAL MELTDOWN (2010); RAGHURAM RAJAN, FAULT LINES: How HIDDEN FRACTURES STILL THREATEN THE WORLD ECONOMY (2010); CARMEN M. REINHART & KENNETH S. ROGOFF, THIS TIME Is DIFFERENT: EIGHT CENTURIES OF FINANCIAL FOLLY (2009); NoURIEL ROUBINI & STEPHEN MIHM, CRISIS ECONOMICS: A CRASH COURSE IN THE FUTURE OF FINANCE (2010); ROBERT J. SHILLER, THE SUBPRIME SOLUTION: How TODAY'S GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS HAPPENED AND WHAT TO Do ABOUT IT (2008); JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ, FREEFALL: AMERICA, FREE MARKETS, AND THE SINKING OF THE WORLD ECONOMY (2010); and JOHN B. TAYLOR, GETTING OFF TRACK: How GOVERNMENT ACTIONS AND INTERVENTIONS CAUSED, PROLONGED AND WORSENED THE FINANCIAL CRISIS (2009). If you were interested enough to read one book about the financial crisis, but only one, Alan Blinder's book would be an excellent choice. 2. Journalists on the financial crisis include: JOHN CASSIDY, How MARKETS FAIL: THE LOGIC OF ECONOMIC CALAMITIES (2009); WILLIAM D. COHAN, HOUSE OF CARDS: A TALE OF HUBRIS AND WRETCHED EXCESS ON WALL STREET (2009); GREG FARRELL, CRASH OF THE TITANS:

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