Introduction:
Today marks 15 years since the closure and collapse of the investment banking firm “Lehman Brothers”. The collapse of this massive financial institution in 2008 was a key event in the timeline of what is today often referred to as “The Great Recession”, “US Financial Crisis”, “The Global Financial Crisis”.
The market failure then and the government interventions that followed suit, very much shape our world today. Much has already been written about this period when the stability of the international financial system was in question. In this blogpost I intend to share some key knowledge resources that have enhanced my understanding of the period of the great recession.
As a student of international relations, politics, and economics in general, this period of economic history has always fascinated me. There exists some amazing and brilliant scholarship that explains the pre and post event history of this period. These include books, articles, films, and even documentaries.
Below are a just a few resources that I wish to share on this day.
Books:
- “Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World: How a Decade of Financial Crisis Changed the World” By Adam Tooze (Tooze, 2018)[1]
- “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine” by Michael Lewis (Lewis, 2011) [2]
- “Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System–and Themselves” By Andrew Ross Sorkin (Sorkin, 2010)[3]
Films:
- “The Big Short” [4] by Adam Mckay
- “Too Big to Fail”[5] by Curtis Hanson
- “Margin Call” [6] by J.C. Chandor
Documentaries:
- A four part series by Frontline PBS called “MONEY, POWER AND WALL STREET”[7] – Also available on YouTube [8]
- “Lehman Brothers – The Bank That Bust The World (Documentary)” [9]
- “Age of Easy Money”[10] by Frontline PBS
- “The Power of the Fed”[11] by Frontline PBS
These are just few of so many. This blogpost will be open always to add any recommendations and suggestions to this list.
Source for the Image: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/14/the-next-financial-crisis-why-it-looks-like-history-may-repeat-itself.html
References and Citations:
[1] Tooze, J. A. (2018). Crashed: How a decade of financial crises changed the world. Viking.
[2] Lewis, M. (2011). The big short: Inside the doomsday machine. W.W. Norton.
[3] Sorkin, A. R. (2010). Too big to fail: The inside story of how Wall Street and Washington fought to save the financial system – and themselves (Updated and with a new afterword). Penguin Books.
[4] The big short—Rotten tomatoes. (2015, December 23). https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_big_short
[5] Hanson, C. (Director). (2011, May 23). Too big to fail [Biography, Drama, History]. Deuce Three Productions, HBO Films, Home Box Office (HBO).
[6] Chandor, J. C. (Director). (2011, September 29). Margin call [Drama, Thriller]. Before The Door Pictures, Benaroya Pictures, Washington Square Films.
[7] Money, power and wall street. (n.d.). FRONTLINE. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/money-power-wall-street/
[8] Money, power and wall street, part one (Full documentary) | frontline. (n.d.). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-Q9AOp2FW8
[9] Lehman brothers—The bank that bust the world(Documentary). (n.d.). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovcno7tiZas
[10] Age of easy money (Full documentary) | frontline. (n.d.). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpMLAQbSYAw
[11] The power of the fed (Full documentary) | frontline. (n.d.). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RbL8lTsITY
India and the World | Hritik Bhasin 