50 Years of Financial Crises

“This story essentially tells of the financial crises that the markets always
end up inflicting on those who have abused their innovations, their excesses
and the lax atmosphere. Dealing with these crises – in often inventive ways –
has taken up much more energy than their prevention or any substantive
reforms. I had the privilege of being involved in some of these ‘ways out of
crisis’. I lived through their dramatic intensity and was, sometimes, able to
contribute to pragmatic solutions which helped to steady the ship. This was
true, for example, of the Latin American crisis, negotiation of the IMF
adjustment programmes and aiding the transition of the Eastern European
countries. But the picture is still dark. The 2007-2008 crisis, with its trail
of unemployment and recession, is an extreme example of what excess debt can
do. And quantitative easing policies, implemented to minimize the effects of
the ‘great recession’ despite its origins in the abuse of debt, plunge an
observer like myself into an abyss of questions and doubts.”From the collapse
of Bretton Woods to that of Lehman Brothers, a first-hand account of fifty
years of financial crises by a participant on the front lines of finance and
currency. The memoirs of an exceptional, influential man who worked alongside
Jacques Delors, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Raymond Barre, Paul Volcker, and
many others. Jacques de Larosière spent his entire career at the head of
financial institutions: he was first Managing Director of the International
Monetary Fund (1978-1987) before becoming Governor of the Banque de France
(1987-1993), then president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (1993-1998). He is currently Advisor to the president of BNP-
Paribas.