Discipline: Social Science, Finance
Moral hazard is again at the center of the 2008 global financial crisis as it was in the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The latter was precipitated by the liberalization of financial markets that gave Asian companies and financial institutions access to foreign markets. The present crisis was triggered by speculative acquisitions of some Asian companies that led to their collapse as well as the banks that financed their ventures. It was a result of the expansion of the US housing market financed by US banks which also turned out to be speculative. In both cases, econometric models and mathematical analyses show risky lending, moral hazard that took the form of securitization, and a general lack of market self-regulation. Thus, financial liberalization, the self-regulating character of the markets and public credit rating agencies, which served as de facto regulators in the liberalized market, are now viewed with much skepticism.
ISSN 0119-8386 (Print)
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