Understanding the financial crisis: Video available

With his analysis of the spread of worldwide financial crisis Professor Neil Fligstein (UC Berkeley) kicked off the newly established WZB Distinguished Lectures in Social Sciences. In his talk he concluded that European banks went down because they were pursuing the exact same profit-making strategies as American banks, in the exact same markets. This in turn caused the effect of the subprime market collapse to resonate globally. Neil Fligstein suggested that it is crucial for future studies of global finance and financial markets to explore the identities and strategies of the individual banks that structure the main markets of the financial system.

The video of his lecture and the following discussion is now available, please klick here.