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Teaching Resources Library

Ethics

Finance

The Global Financial Crisis of 2008: The Role of Greed, Fear and Oligarchs

By

Mar 16, 2012

Abstract

Set in 2009, and based on interviews with and publications by MIT Sloan Professors Simon Johnson and Andrew Lo, this note describes the “why” and “how” behind the global financial crisis that hit in 2008 as well as the short-term and long-range solutions being publicly advocated by Johnson and Lo.

“Free enterprise is always the right answer. The problem is that it ignores the human element. It does not take into account the complexities of human behavior.” – Andrew Lo, Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management

Learning Objectives

To encourage debate among students about the increasingly complex relationship between business and government and the degree to which one influences the other for good and ill.

Appropriate for the Following Course(s)

ethics, business and government, organizational behavior, finance

The Global Financial Crisis of 2008: The Role of Greed, Fear, and Oligarchs

*An educator (non-watermarked) copy of this case is available only to individuals who hold teaching positions at academic institutions and want to use the case in a course.