“A hazardous bailout, a meltdown-averting loan of last resort, or both? Posner explains how the administration and the Fed reduced the severity of the Great Financial Crisis by skating near and sometimes beyond the boundaries of their authorities. As usual, he stirs things up!”
— Darrell Duffie, Stanford University
“Posner’s argument that various government interventions violated the Constitution is provocative and cuts against conventional wisdom. Although there are now bookshelves full of crisis postmortems, this is one of the few that rigorously analyzes the legality of the government’s bailout efforts. Posner also outlines the ways we can overhaul the government’s powers to improve the legality and effectiveness of its crisis management capabilities.”
— Erik Gerding, author of Law, Bubbles, and Financial Regulation
“Whether legal constraints did or did not constrain the actions of the official sector during the global financial crisis had been insufficiently explored. Posner’s book brilliantly fills this void and is a must read for anyone interested in the crisis.”
— Anil Kashyap, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
"Rather than blaming the government or the corporations . . . [Posner] emphasizes how outdated the rules regulating these corporations are and how the public would be better served in future financial crises—which he posits are largely unavoidable—by changing the law."
— Booklist
"Posner would like to see an LLR with broad powers to lend when collateral is unavailable or impossible to value, make capital injections.and direct firms to enter financial transactions... It is a troubling conclusion:the modern financial system requires an LLR with powers no political structure is likely to grant."
— F and D Magazine
“One of the most succinct and lucid explanations of the sources and dynamics of the crisis that I have read. . . . The book’s specific legal arguments are particular to the US, . . . but Posner’s general arguments about the need for robust underpinning of the financial system, and well-defined powers of intervention and rescue, are relevant to any country hosting a complex financial centre.”
— Times Higher Education
“A startling and important book.”
— Martin Wolf, Financial Times