List of Figures and Tables
1. Introduction
Growth versus Stability in Financial Regulation
The Argument in Brief
Alternate Explanations
Decline, Deregulation, and Crises through History
The Plan of This Book
2. A Theory of Great Deregulations
What Is Financial Leadership?
The Causes and Consequences of Decline
How Do Lead Economies (and Challengers) Respond to Decline?
International Regulation
Conclusion
3. The Great Deregulation of the 1850s
The Origins of the Joint Stock Banking Act
Napoléon III and the French Financial Revolution
The Turn to Limited Liability in Britain
The Spiral
Conclusion
4. The Interwar Battle for Financial Supremacy
The (Financial) Pax Britannica
The American Challenge to British Financial Leadership
The First World War and British Decline
The Gold-Exchange Standard and Britain’s Return to Gold
From Restoration to Depression
Conclusion
5. The Great Deregulation of 1980-2000
An Era of Stability: Bretton Woods and the Glass-Steagall Era
Deregulation Stalls, 1980-6
Competitive Challenges
The Rise of Japan
A British Challenge
Competitiveness and the End of Glass-Steagall, 1986-2000
Conclusion
6. Conclusion
American Twilight?
Appendix: Distinguishing between Stringent and Lax Regulation
Notes
Works Cited
Index