Podcast

The Current Crisis: Alternative Histories - audio

Prof Charles Maier (Dept of History/Centre for European Studies, Harvard University)

Charles Maier's lecture offers an explanation for the financial crisis that differs from most media accounts. While generating passionate disagreement, public debate has tended to attribute the current economic difficulties to discrete developments including the role played by improvident mortgage customers, corporate remuneration schemes, bungled rescue attempts for imperilled financial institutions and misconceptions about market rationality. By contrast, Maier urges us to take a more systemic view. He emphasizes the …