The Default Line · THE INSIDE STORY OF PEOPLE, BANKS AND ENTIRE NATIONS ON THE EDGE by Islam, Faisal -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Welcome Page Dedication Contents Introduction

How to read this book

Chapter 1: How the Euro Stole the Greek Sun

The tax inspectors and the Troikan Horse ‘Wow, we’re going to save Greece!’ A nation on the edge From demos kratos to technos kratos

Chapter 2: Of Fiscal Criminals and Bond Vigilantes

Chapter 3: The Real Northern Rock

In the office of the Central Bank governor Mr Hauksson’s whiteboard

Chapter 4: 12/11: The Chinese Root Canals of Crisis

From petrodollar to Sinodollar The new Chinese empire strikes back Gangnanomics

Chapter 5: The House Trap

Esther’s story Jay’s story From democracy to domocracy: Britain’s mortgage frenzy Handing out credit like it’s crack The helping hand of no house-building Buy-to-let and the myth of the property-owning democracy Rise of the domocracy

Chapter 6: Three Funerals, Two Banking Systems and a Wedding

The Bankers’ Last Supper that changed little HBoS: bailing out a basket case New Labour, light touch All roads lead to London Mis-selling mortgages to poor African Americans London: capital of the shadow banking world How Barclays scraped through the stress test and escaped state ownership

Chapter 7: The Formula that Created the Shadow Banking System

The formulae that made complex credit derivatives possible The Tyne: rolling river of mortgage credit Earthquakes real and earthquakes economic The pseudo-science that led to default

Chapter 8: The Gates of Hell

Homes without people, towns without communities Señor Hernando and the giant mortgage The politicians who tried to burst the bubble Northern Europe fans the flames The blister and the bailout balm A lost generation of milleuristas

Chapter 9: Mervyn’s Magic Money Machine

Britain: world champion of QE QE: a bandage for a burst credit bubble? Political and diplomatic impacts of QE Professor Werner’s view A monetary policy for the wealthy

Chapter 10: The Reluctant Imperium

How to flourish in a financial crisis: the new German Wirtschaftswunder The euro crisis spreads Cautious does it: stable money, low inflation and low debt The wages of restraint… Germany always writes the cheque in the end

Chapter 11: Ground Control to Eurotower

The price of pizzas and the incoherence of the Eurozone The view from ‘Main-hattan’: The ECB and the Eurozone crisis Silvio versus the ECB The ECB, Ireland’s bailout and the world’s worst bank Refinancing the Eurozone banking system The de facto president of Europe

Chapter 12: The Great Carbon Wars

In the land of black gold Gazprom: a new breed of energy giant Midnight in Novi Urengoy Gazpromland: from state socialism to Kremlin-commanded capitalism Energy becomes power: Russia as petrostate India’s power surge and the global debate about climate change The carbon traders of Kingston upon Thames

Chapter 13: Lent in Larnaca: The Cypriot Job

The island laboratory A cesspit of money laundering? Muscovites on the Med: the Russian connection Northern Cyprus: the Turkish connection Bank Holiday Island’s man-made disasters From big bang to basket case A Big Fat Greek Shredding The strange case of the monks and the bankers ‘Troika go home!’: the deal at gun-point A second bailout, not a second chance A magnet for dodgy money? Lose-lose for everyone

Epilogue: New Default Lines

DEFAULT LINE #1: Living standards and working wages DEFAULT LINE #2: Housing and intergenerational equity DEFAULT LINE #3: Austerity and spending DEFAULT LINE #4: Banking and the sovereign doom loop DEFAULT LINE #5: Superstates and city-states DEFAULT LINE #6: The role of economics

Ten ideas to chew on Acknowledgements About this Book About the Author An Invitation from the Publisher Copyright