The financial crisis of 2008 led to the most severe recession since the one, which began in 1929. Economists worldwide see burst of the real estate bubble in the USA as one of the main factors that started the chain reaction at the early stage of the crisis. They therefore blame banks excessive lending activity as the main cause of the bubble formation. But was it really the banking sector, that made housing prices deviate so much from their fundamentals as to grow later in the bubble? This book looks at the causes of the financial crisis by considering to what extend and how liquidity in the...