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Preventing Crashes: Lessons for the SEC from the Airline Industry

01.6.15

BY CHRIS CLEARFIELD, ANDRÁS TILCSIK, BENJAMIN BERMAN A small error on August 1, 2012 nearly bankrupted the Knight Capital Group. Code from a discontinued software component was accidentally reused after nine years, and in just 45 minutes Knight’s automated order router had flooded the market with millions of unintended orders. Knight lost $460 million when […]

Business and Regulation

America, Decoupled: Fighting the Trend

10.18.13

Note: This is part 2 of a 2 part series. Read Brian’s first post here. Photo credit: Michael S. Williamson (source here). BY BRIAN CHIGLINSKY Yesterday, we introduced the concept of the Great Decoupling – the idea that middle class income growth is no longer connected to the growth of the broader American economy. Today, we look […]

America, Decoupled: The Plight of the Middle Class

10.17.13

Note: This post is part 1 of a 2 part series. Part 2 will be available on Friday, October 18. BY BRIAN CHIGLINSKY It sounded like a fantasy novel. In the heyday of furniture manufacturing, she said, a high school student could drop out, walk out of his schoolhouse, down the road by the river […]

Banks should have to use 50% equity, not 3%-6%

08.26.13

BY JOSH RUDOLPH  Over the summer, US bank regulators announced that the eight largest US banks will have to maintain leverage ratios[1] (equity / total assets) of at least 5% for their holding companies and 6% for their depository institutions. This new supplement to the international standard of 3% is a step in the right direction, but […]

The Disparity Bubble: How Inequality Fed the Financial Crisis

04.1.12

BY JAMES WALSH One of the painful lessons of the Great Recession has been that markets do not operate in a vacuum. They are influenced by a variety of external factors, including socioeconomic dynamics, norms of behavior, and institutions. Conversely, the market also has the capacity to shape our politics and society by creating and […]

Poverty, Inequality and Opportunity

Smart Stimulus Amid Deepening Debt: Future-Flow Tax Credits

04.1.12

By William Werkmeister This article was originally published in the 2012 edition of the Kennedy School Review. Entering 2012, the world finds itself in a precarious financial position. In January of this year, the World Bank released its new economic outlook, warning of a global, double-dip recession. “An escalation of the crisis would spare no […]

Public Finance

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