essay plans

Question 1

Why was the emergence of modern central banking so slow? Describe
Developments with a particular focus on the interwar period.

Question 2

Would the Great Depression of the 1930s have happened without World War I?/ To what extent was the legacy of World War I for the Great Depression?

Question 3

Was monetary policy responsible for the Great Depression?/ What was the role of monetary policy in exiting from the Great Depression?

Question 4

“The International Monetary Fund reluctantly learned its lessons from the 1997 Asian financial crisis but eventually implemented them after the 2008 Global
Financial Crisis.” Discuss.

Question 5

Explain how the U.S. banking crisis of 2007/08 was able to translate so quickly into a global banking crisis./ Explain how problems in the US subprime mortgage market were able to result ina US banking crisis, following quickly by a global banking crisis.

Question 6

Was the Eurozone crisis of 2009 to 2015 a government debt crisis, a
banking crisis, or a currency crisis?

Question 7

Is the euro more sustainable today than it was before the eurozone crisis?

Question 8

Does history suggest that post-Covid-19 government debt levels of Britain/ advanced economies might be unsustainable?

Question 9

Was the Greek financial crisis of 2009 to 2015 a government debt crisis, a
banking crisis, or a currency crisis?

Question 10

Why do currency/banking crises and government debt crises so often occur
simultaneously? Explain with reference to one or two specific crises.

Question 11

Explain similarities and differences between national and international
lender of last resort.

Question 12

Critically discuss the relative merits of the IMF and the US Federal
Reserve as global lender of last resort.

Question 13

Provide a historical and analytical account of contagion with reference to
one specific financial crisis.

Question 14

“No euro area member country has really benefitted from European
Monetary Union membership, neither the countries on the periphery nor
those in the core.” Discuss.

Question 15

Is the Eurozone crisis over?

Question 16

Should there be an international lender of last resort?

Question 17

“Mainstream economists do not understand the phenomenon of bubbles.”
Discuss.

Question 18

Explain Minsky’s Financial Fragility Hypothesis both theoretically and
empirically with reference to at least one historical example.

Question 19

How much of the South Sea Bubble can be explained by market
fundamentals?

Question 20

To what extent can new financial instruments be held responsible for
financial crises?

Question 21

How “costly” are financial crises? Have they grown more severe and
more frequent over time?

Question 22

What was the role of the gold standard in the Great Depression?

Question 23

How would one use Irving Fisher’s Debt Deflation theory to analyse the
2008 global financial crisis in the US and UK?