Alan Blinder, former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve board, joined The Common Good for a special luncheon to discuss how our economy collapsed, how our government responded, and what needs to be done to get us back on track.
With his new book, After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, The Response, and the Work Ahead, Blinder shows us how the U.S. financial system, which had grown far too complex for its own good—and too unregulated for the public good—experienced a perfect storm beginning in 2007. Things started unraveling when the much-chronicled housing bubble burst, but the ensuing implosion of what Blinder calls the “bond bubble” was larger and more devastating. When America’s financial structure crumbled, the damage proved to be not only deep, but wide. Some observers argue that large global forces were the major culprits of the crisis. Blinder disagrees, arguing that the problem started in the U.S. and was pushed abroad, as complex, opaque, and overrated investment products were exported to a hungry world, which was nearly poisoned by them. The second part of the story explains how American and international government intervention kept us from a total meltdown, preventing the worst from happening.
Blinder offers clear-eyed answers to the questions still before us, even if some of the choices ahead are as divisive as they are unavoidable.
“If you want to understand every aspect of our economic crisis—how we got into it, how we escaped a depression, why we haven’t fully recovered, and what we have to do now—read this book. It’s a masterpiece—simple, straightforward and wise.”
“The best comprehensive history of the financial crisis so far makes the case for the US government response”
“True to his scholarly roots and informed by his practical insights, Alan Blinder has produced in After the Music Stopped both a comprehensive and, mirabile dictu, engagingly readable analysis of the great financial crisis. Whether or not one agrees with every particular judgment, the force of the argument is clear: here we are, four years later, still short of reforms that are needed.”
Alan S. Blinder has been on the Princeton faculty since 1971, taking time off from January 1993 through January 1996 for service in the U.S. government—first as a member of President Clinton’s original Council of Economic Advisers, and then as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
In addition to his academic writings and his best-selling introductory textbook, he has written many op-eds and columns, and, in recent years, has been a regular columnist for The Wall Street Journal. Dr. Blinder has appeared frequently on television, including on PBS, CNBC, CNN, and Bloomberg. He is a Distinguished Fellow and past vice president of the American Economic Association, a past president of the Eastern Economic Association, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
