Essay questions

1. What causes financial instability/fragility? Stated otherwise, what are the main

factors/drivers of asset price inflation and financial bubbles? Discuss with reference

to a case study (e.g. a financial bubble/crisis).

2. What gives value to the Dollar? Why is it accepted as the world reserve and vehicle

currency? Provide an analysis of Dollar hegemony/power in the post-Bretton Woods

global order.

3. What do big banks do today? How has banking evolved in the last decades?

4. Why have states partly lost their ability to tax? How have governments been

compensating for their fiscal faults? Discuss the fiscal crisis of states with reference

to at least one case study.

5. Are central banks market-neutral agencies? Discuss central bank monetary

governance with reference to at least one case study and/or in a specific historical

context.

6. Are central banks monetary regulators or active market players? Discuss

unconventional central banking since the 2007-08 crisis.

7. Why do publicly traded companies engage in stock repurchases? Discuss the

shareholder value revolution in corporate governance.

8. Why has U.S. household debt dramatically increased in the last forty years? Who

borrows and why? Discuss the emergence of a finance culture among U.S. households.

9. What is securitisation? How does it contribute to creating and sustaining the global

financial system? What are the socio-economic implications of securitisation? Discuss

with reference to a case study.

10. What are financial markets? Who are the main financial market players? What are their different objectives? Provide an analysis of the global financial ecology today.