In a new book entitled “Financing Failure: A Century of Bailouts,” Vern McKinley provides the most detailed account yet of the government’s decision-making process during these momentous events.

The Dodd-Frank legislation has many problems and omissions, and much is still uncertain about implementation. But the new liquidation authority provides for the possibility of making it so that future crises do not involve the bailouts of creditors that truly embodied the problem of having banks that are too big to fail.

$25 billion in National Mortgage Settlement and other policy efforts have worked to prevent the real estate market from clearing.  At the same time, these policies have harmed those who have done the right thing.

Michael Greve argues in his new book that that a reorientation toward constitutional forms and arrangements will require a wholesale reformulation of conservative jurisprudence.

Ready for the battle in November? You probably think I’m talking about the election. No, I’m talking about the battle around your Thanksgiving table. The dinner conversation will turn to politics and the economy, and it will be your job to stick up for capitalism and free markets.

The government is currently considering alternative means of assisting banks: buying assets (including the creation of an aggregator bank) and offering various forms of downside guarantee against loss on some assets.

On April 13, 2012, the US Department of the Treasury released new cost estimates for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Looking principally at actual and projected contractual cash flows, the document concludes that: "Overall, the government is now expected to at least break even on its financial stability programs and may realize a positive return." 

Panelists will discuss the recent series of government interventions and bailouts triggered by the credit crunch and financial panic of 2008.