Remaking macroeconomic policy after the global financial crisis: a balance-sheet approach

Abstract

This paper describes the origins of the global financial crisis and how the prevailing New Keynesian macroeconomic orthodoxy failed to anticipate its severity. This failure, we argue, stemmed from an incomplete understanding of the pivotal role of financial institutions in the amplification of the crisis and its transmission to the wider economy. Low global interest rates and a consequent 'search for yield' in the pre-crisis period encouraged financial institutions to build highly leveraged balance sheets whic…