Front cover -- About the editor -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Figures -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: sovereign bonds, burden sharing and the Troika's rescues -- Bubbles and financial lobbies -- Contagious deregulation from the United States -- Europe's toxic loans -- The EU in crisis -- Rescue funds: multilateralism euro-style -- Terms of the rescue -- This book -- Notes -- References -- 1 The Great Recession, spillover in Europe, banking collapse in Ireland -- Introduction -- Spillover -- SBC debates -- Who regulates global finance? -- US exposure to the European 'core' -- Austerity and privatisation -- Escalation, contagion and burden sharing -- Cracks appear in the design of Eurozone institutions -- Structural imbalances in imports and exports -- Gross domestic product -- Structural imbalances and their alternatives -- Contagion via bond speculation -- European Union finance steps in -- Contagion: the role of derivatives -- Private investment between Europe and the US -- The US dollar carry trade -- The role of unregulated derivatives -- The €2 billion bank bond default in Ireland in 2011 -- Geithner too pleads for derivatives regulation -- The moral of the story -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 2 Crises and contagion: a survey -- Introduction -- What causes financial crises? -- How crises spread -- Contagion and financial and capital market liberalisation -- Financial market integration -- Notes -- References -- 3 Countering the myths of the Portuguese debt -- Introduction -- Delicate finances and speculative attacks -- Portugal: could things have been different? -- Asymmetric integration and external imbalances -- 3.1 Current account balances as a percentage of GDP in Germany and Portugal, 1994-2010 -- 3.2 Financial accounts as a percentage of GDP in Germany and Portugal, 1995-2011.

Asymmetric integration and public accounts -- 3.3 Interest rates versus GDP growth during the process of nominal convergence, 1992-99 -- Dangerous myths -- 3.4 Average gross annual earnings, 1996-2008 -- 3.5 Official unemployment rate in Portugal, 1998-2013 -- 3.6 Evolution of real unit labour costs, 1995-2008 -- 3.7 Inflation rate, 1997-2008 -- 3.8 Evolution of the growth in productivity, 1995-2008 -- 3.9 Gross public debt in the euro area as a whole and in Germany and Portugal, 2000-13 -- 3.10 Expenditure on social protection in the euro area as a whole and in Germanyand Portugal, 2000-11 -- 3.11 Total Portuguese individual debt as a percentage of disposable income and as a percentage of GDP, 1997-2010 -- 3.12 Real estate loans and total loans to individuals, 1997-2011 -- The adjustment programme: a fatal cure -- 3.13 Unit labour costs in the euro area and in Portugal, 1995-2013 -- 3.14 Portugal's exports versus imports and GDP, 2008-13 -- Reducing public deficit in times of recession: why it cannot be done -- 3.15 Percentage yields on Portuguese ten-year bonds, 2010-12 -- 3.16 Government bond yields plotted against ECB bond purchases -- Notes -- References -- 4 Greece: Europe's worst success story -- Introduction -- The Greek debt fiasco -- 4.1 Changes in forecasts for GDP and employment outlooks for Greece -- The social and political impact of the crisis -- Are there lessons to be learned from the past? -- Final conclusions -- Notes -- References -- 5 Argentina 2001: a heterodox exit from the crisis -- The Argentine crisis of 2001 and recovery between 2002 and 2006 -- The normalisation, recovery and growth plan -- Before the crisis -- Once the crisis occurs -- Simple macroeconomics versus structural adjustment programmes -- Social participation -- Restructuring sovereign debt.

Principal creditors and active entities in the restructuring procedure -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Epilogue -- Problems seeking solutions -- Human error: a primer on the neoclassical mindset -- Scrutiny and transparency -- Scapegoating -- Democracy in crisis -- What form of European Union might evolve from the crisis? -- Rebuilding confidence -- Notes -- References -- About the Contributors -- Glossary -- Index -- Back cover.