Financial Crises

This political economy course delves into the factors that contribute to financial crises, including financial innovations. You will study concrete examples from both traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) - such as the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-09, the "crypto winter" of 2022 and the failure of several mid-sized US banks in 2023 (e.g., Silicon Valley Bank) - in order to show how risk builds and crystalizes. The goal is to hone your critical capacity to identify risks to the financial system and assess regulatory responses.