A nonpartisan plan of action for fixing the global economy from fifteen of the world's leading economists

In the fall of 2008, fifteen of the world's leading economists—representing the broadest spectrum of economic opinion—gathered at New Hampshire's Squam Lake. Their goal: the mapping of a long-term plan for financial regulation reform.

The Squam Lake Report distills the wealth of insights from the ongoing collaboration that began at these meetings and provides a revelatory, unified, and coherent voice for fixing our troubled and damaged financial markets. As an alternative to the patchwork solutions and ideologically charged proposals that have dominated other discussions, the Squam Lake group sets forth a clear nonpartisan plan of action to transform the regulation of financial markets—not just for the current climate—but for generations to come.

Arguing that there has been a conflict between financial institutions and society, these diverse experts present sound and transparent prescriptions to reduce this divide. They look at the critical holes in the existing regulatory framework for handling complex financial institutions, retirement savings, and credit default swaps. They offer ideas for new financial instruments designed to recapitalize banks without burdening taxpayers. To lower the risk that large banks will fail, the authors call for higher capital requirements as well as a systemic regulator who is part of the central bank. They collectively analyze where the financial system has failed, and how these weak points should be overhauled.

Combining an immense depth of academic, private sector, and public policy experience, The Squam Lake Report contains urgent recommendations that will positively influence everyone's financial well-being—all who care about the world's economic health need to pay attention.

"Fifteen prominent academic US economists developed this concise set of recommendations for financial regulation reform in Fall 2008 in a desire to prevent a recurrence of the financial crisis that developed in 2007 and whose effects continue to the present. The introductory chapter provides an excellent summary of the cascade of financial catastrophes precipitated initially by losses on mortgage-backed securities. . . . [A] useful volume for its historical overview and coverage of key issues."

"The Squam Lake Report is a slight volume of ten chapters and just 157 pages--practically anorexic by the standards of many tomes about the credit crunch--but it makes heavyweight claims. It is the product of 15 of the leading financial economists in the United States, who first met on a weekend retreat to New Hampshire's remote and scenic Squam Lake, and offers their prescriptions for regulatory reform to stave off future collapses."

"The Squam Lake Report [is] a slim volume that contains the best prescriptions of the brightest minds of economics about how to save the financial system."---Heidi N. Moore, CNNMoney.com

"If you asked me to recommend one thing to read on reforming financial regulation, [The Squam Lake Report] would be it."---Clive Crook, The Atlantic

"Raghuram Rajan, Winner of the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics 2013, The Center for Financial Studies"

"Robert J. Shiller, Co-Winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics"

"The Squam Lake Report is an excellent primer on the workings and failures of today's sophisticated financial system. Few can fail to be impressed with the scholarship the Report brings to the subject of reform."—Alan Greenspan

"The Squam Lake Report makes an important contribution to the debate on financial regulation, highlighting many interesting and innovative ideas that should be considered by all those studying how a future crisis can be avoided."—Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England

"Insightful and highly relevant."—Markus K. Brunnermeier, Princeton University