What role have the financial elites in European societies and markets played over time? What was their contribution to the recent financial collapse, and how does this compare to previous crises? How have financial elites adjusted to, or influenced, the evolution of the financial system's regulatory framework over time? Financial Elites and European Banking: Historical Perspectives is a collection of essays dedicated to the European financial elites and the current debate on the role of experts within society.
The ambiguities of the globalized economy over the last thirty years, epitomized by growing levels of inequality, have generated a feeling of distrust towards experts. Financial elites have become one of the most scrutinized targets of negative public opinion, triggered by the financial crisis, the high compensations enjoyed both before and after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and the obscure nature of their activity. Financial Elites in European Banking presents historical comparisons and country and cross-country case studies on financial elites' adaption and contribution to the transformation of regulatory and cultural context in the wake of a crisis.
Introduction, Giuseppe Telesca
1: Financial crises and the public discourse on financial elites: A comparison between the Great Depression and the Great Recession, Youssef Cassis and Giuseppe Telesca
2: Reshaping strategies: merchants and bankers at the time of the French Revolution, Niccola Valmori
3: Adjusting to financial instability in the interwar period. Italian financial elites, international cooperation and domestic regulation, 1919-1939, Giandomenico Piluso
4: Financial elites and the Italian corporate network, 1913-2001, Alberto Rinaldi and Michelangelo Vasta
5: French bankers and the transformation of the financial system in the second half of the twentieth century, Laure Quennoulle-Corre
6: Trust and regulation in corporate capital markets before 1914, Leslie Hannah
7: Financial elites, law, and regulation: A historical perspective, TT Arvind, Joanna Gray, and Sarah Wilson
8: Central bankers in twelve countries between 1950 and 2000: the making of a global elite, Mikael Wendschlag
9: Basel banking supervisors and the construction of an international standard-setter institution, Alexis Frideri Drach