The Financial Peculiarity of Greece Some Lessons for a Theory of Financial Crisis

Abstract

This paper presents a critical appraisal of financial crisis theories and their ability to illuminate the present crisis in Greece. The paper suggests that financial crises are differentiated because of global financial integration of economies that are different due to international economic specialisation and division of labour, giving rise to different debt structures in different countries. The policy response of governments has been one of institutional inertia and refinancing of banks through multilateral and state channels. This effectively makes banking crisis into a crisis of the state. The relevant theory becomes the Luxemburgist political economy of the state as refinancer of last resort, at the expense of the non-financial (real) economy.