A Failure of Capitalism

The Crisis of '08 and the Descent into Depression

Is the world’s current financial meltdown a failure of government or the market?

"I believe it is a market failure," writes Richard A. Posner in A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of '08 and the Descent into Depression, a new book  described by the Washington Post as a  “bracing critique” of the causes of the crisis.

"The government’s myopia, passivity, and blunders played a critical role in allowing the recession to balloon into a depression," writes Posner, "and so have several fortuitous factors. " But the acclaimed Circuit Judge of the US Court of Appeals, prolific author and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School goes on to say that without any government regulation of the financial industry at all, "the economy would still, in all likelihood, be in a depression."

With this provocative assertion as a starting point, Judge Posner participates in a live, virtual debate on the compelling question of whether capitalism has indeed failed our financial system, and whether regulation is the solution. He is joined by two noted experts in financial services: economist Robert E. Litan, and Brian P. Brooks, a nationally recognized attorney  who specializes in subprime mortgage issues. David S. Evans, an economist who is the editor-in-chief of FinReg21’s Lombard Street, moderates.

Excerpts from A Failure of Capitalism are published in the May 11 issue of  Lombard Street, FinReg21's flagship ejournal about financial services regulation and reform.

To purchase a copy of the book, contact  Harvard University Press.

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Presenter bios

Richard Allen Posner is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago. He helped start the law and economics movement while a professor at the University of Chicago Law School where he serves as a senior lecturer. Posner is the author of nearly 40 books on jurisprudence, legal philosophy and other topics. He is one of the most respected and most cited legal scholars in the United States. 

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Brian P. Brooks is the managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office of O’Melveny & Myers LLP.  A nationally recognized expert on subprime mortgages, Brooks has testified, written, and lectured on issues relating to the financial crisis before federal government agencies, think tanks, and industry audiences. 

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David S. Evans is the Executive Director of the Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics at the University College London, where he is also a visiting professor, and a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He is the Founder of Market Platform Dynamics and is the editor-in-chief of Lombard Street.