This book discusses several popular crisis origin theories, such as the
failure of monetary policy, abuse of financial derivatives, failure of
supervision, the global economy imbalance, the imbalance of the American
economic structure, and so-called "excessive" saving in emerging
economies. We find that the recent financial crisis is closely linked to
the operation of the dollar standard, and we also study its inherent
vulnerability, and that of the US monetary policy. Finally, we conclude
that the operation of the dollar standard was a primary cause of the
financial crisis.