It is the intention of the 21 contributions in this book to argue that the complexity of the global financial crisis challenges researchers to offer comprehensive explanations by extending the scope and range of their traditional investigations. The volume is unique in viewing the financial crisis simultaneously through three different lenses—economic, psychological, and social values. In this respect, what also sets it apart is the discussion of what has gotten overlooked in the debates about the crisis, and how narrow framing has impacted social discourse about financial instability. This bo ... More

It is the intention of the 21 contributions in this book to argue that the complexity of the global financial crisis challenges researchers to offer comprehensive explanations by extending the scope and range of their traditional investigations. The volume is unique in viewing the financial crisis simultaneously through three different lenses—economic, psychological, and social values. In this respect, what also sets it apart is the discussion of what has gotten overlooked in the debates about the crisis, and how narrow framing has impacted social discourse about financial instability. This book goes beyond the initial criticisms of orthodox economic theories by offering a constructive methodology that is suitable for exploring financial crises. The authors recognize how current economic analysis did not prepare academic economists, business economists, traders, and regulators to anticipate economic and financial crises. So, the book searches more extensively within the broader discipline of economics for ideas related to crises but neglected perhaps because they were not mathematically rigorous. The primary example is the contributions of Hyman Minsky. The book first reviews how the crisis is viewed by the standards of orthodox economic analysis, despite its shortcomings. Second, it examines Minskyan economics, which is expanded to introduce ideas from psychology which form the basis of behavioral economics. Third, the volume emphasizes the role of ideas and values in economics, and views the crisis from this dimension.