Only the Shadow Banking System Knows

 

Takeaway

  • The shadow banking system is an unregulated, unreported mechanism that has been built as a financial transmission device
  • A Black Swan event, such as a municipal or Euro sovereign default or a Middle East trade blockage, could cause the asset bubble to burst

Since last October, the stock market has been on a run. The Federal Reserve is now taking credit for the rebound, claiming it was an outcome of the monetary leap forward known as Quantitative Easing. By its own admission, the Fed is promoting financial leverage and doesn’t know the extent to which it is creating an asset bubble — a responsibility it now has the obligation to monitor and control.

So far, so good. But McCombs Professor Lew Spellman cautions that a Black Swan event could eventually lead to asset deleveraging. Read more at his blog, The Spellman Report.

About The Author

Lew Spellman

Professor, Department of Finance, McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin

Lewis Spellman received his BBA and MBA from the University of Michigan and his MA and Ph.D. from Stanford University. His research interests...

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