Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199859948
- eISBN:
- 9780199951178
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199859948.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
Finding ways to understand the nature of social change and social order—from political movements to market meltdowns—is one of the enduring problems of social science. This book draws together ...
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Finding ways to understand the nature of social change and social order—from political movements to market meltdowns—is one of the enduring problems of social science. This book draws together far-ranging insights from social movement theory, organizational theory, and economic and political sociology to construct a general theory of social organization and strategic action. This book proposes that social change and social order can be understood through what the book calls strategic action fields. It posits that these fields are the general building blocks of political and economic life, civil society, and the state, and the fundamental form of order in our world today. Similar to Russian dolls, they are nested and connected in a broader environment of almost countless proximate and overlapping fields. Fields are mutually dependent; change in one often triggers change in another. At the core of the theory is an account of how social actors fashion and maintain order in a given field. This sociological theory of action, what they call “social skill,” helps explain what individuals do in strategic action fields to gain cooperation or engage in competition. To demonstrate the breadth of the theory, the book makes its abstract principles concrete through extended case studies of the Civil Rights Movement and the rise and fall of the market for mortgages in the U.S. since the 1960s. The book also provides a “how-to” guide to help others implement the approach and discusses methodological issues.Less
Finding ways to understand the nature of social change and social order—from political movements to market meltdowns—is one of the enduring problems of social science. This book draws together far-ranging insights from social movement theory, organizational theory, and economic and political sociology to construct a general theory of social organization and strategic action. This book proposes that social change and social order can be understood through what the book calls strategic action fields. It posits that these fields are the general building blocks of political and economic life, civil society, and the state, and the fundamental form of order in our world today. Similar to Russian dolls, they are nested and connected in a broader environment of almost countless proximate and overlapping fields. Fields are mutually dependent; change in one often triggers change in another. At the core of the theory is an account of how social actors fashion and maintain order in a given field. This sociological theory of action, what they call “social skill,” helps explain what individuals do in strategic action fields to gain cooperation or engage in competition. To demonstrate the breadth of the theory, the book makes its abstract principles concrete through extended case studies of the Civil Rights Movement and the rise and fall of the market for mortgages in the U.S. since the 1960s. The book also provides a “how-to” guide to help others implement the approach and discusses methodological issues.
Todd Sinai and Nicholas Souleles
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199549108
- eISBN:
- 9780191720734
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549108.003.0004
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Pensions and Pension Management
This chapter documents the trends in the life-cycle profiles of net worth and housing equity of older persons. During the 1993-2004 period, older households' net worth rose significantly, yet net ...
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This chapter documents the trends in the life-cycle profiles of net worth and housing equity of older persons. During the 1993-2004 period, older households' net worth rose significantly, yet net worth grew by more than housing equity, in part because other assets also appreciated at the same time. Moreover, the younger elderly offset rising house prices by increasing their housing debt and used some of the proceeds to invest in other assets. The chapter considers how much of their housing equity older households could actually tap using reverse mortgages. It shows that this fraction is lower at younger ages, such that young retirees can consume less than half of their housing equity. Their results imply that consumable net worth is smaller than standard calculations of net worth.Less
This chapter documents the trends in the life-cycle profiles of net worth and housing equity of older persons. During the 1993-2004 period, older households' net worth rose significantly, yet net worth grew by more than housing equity, in part because other assets also appreciated at the same time. Moreover, the younger elderly offset rising house prices by increasing their housing debt and used some of the proceeds to invest in other assets. The chapter considers how much of their housing equity older households could actually tap using reverse mortgages. It shows that this fraction is lower at younger ages, such that young retirees can consume less than half of their housing equity. Their results imply that consumable net worth is smaller than standard calculations of net worth.
Liz Alden Wily
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199204762
- eISBN:
- 9780191603860
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199204764.003.0015
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This paper looks at how rural land rights are being formalized in Africa. It argues that highly significant improvements are emerging under the current wave of land reform. In a rising number of ...
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This paper looks at how rural land rights are being formalized in Africa. It argues that highly significant improvements are emerging under the current wave of land reform. In a rising number of states, customary land holders can now register their ownership directly without having their rights converted into European-derived forms like freehold or leasehold. The registration process is also decentralizing nearer to landholders. However, the process is too focused upon individually owned properties like houses and farms, when it is common properties that are most at risk from involuntary loss. This inattention is depriving communities of critical resources to livelihood and opportunities to benefit from their rising values.Less
This paper looks at how rural land rights are being formalized in Africa. It argues that highly significant improvements are emerging under the current wave of land reform. In a rising number of states, customary land holders can now register their ownership directly without having their rights converted into European-derived forms like freehold or leasehold. The registration process is also decentralizing nearer to landholders. However, the process is too focused upon individually owned properties like houses and farms, when it is common properties that are most at risk from involuntary loss. This inattention is depriving communities of critical resources to livelihood and opportunities to benefit from their rising values.
Andreas Busch
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199218813
- eISBN:
- 9780191711763
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199218813.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics, Political Economy
This chapter discusses the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. Topics covered include the manifestation of the crisis, causes of the crisis, and the potential consequences of the crisis ...
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This chapter discusses the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. Topics covered include the manifestation of the crisis, causes of the crisis, and the potential consequences of the crisis based on the analysis presented in the preceding chapters.Less
This chapter discusses the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. Topics covered include the manifestation of the crisis, causes of the crisis, and the potential consequences of the crisis based on the analysis presented in the preceding chapters.
Desmond King
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198292494
- eISBN:
- 9780191599682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829249X.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
King examines how interventions of the American federal government—namely, the United States Employment Service (USES), federal mortgage assistance, and public housing programmes—mirrored the ...
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King examines how interventions of the American federal government—namely, the United States Employment Service (USES), federal mortgage assistance, and public housing programmes—mirrored the segregationist order in which they were installed, thus consolidating residential separation by race. According to King, not only did USES discriminate in their job placements but also in its field office facilities and staff; he also shows how the anti‐discrimination policies of the USES were failures and explores the reasons. Next, King traces the evolution of federal public housing and mortgage assistance programmes, focusing especially on the policies of the US Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and responses from organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).Less
King examines how interventions of the American federal government—namely, the United States Employment Service (USES), federal mortgage assistance, and public housing programmes—mirrored the segregationist order in which they were installed, thus consolidating residential separation by race. According to King, not only did USES discriminate in their job placements but also in its field office facilities and staff; he also shows how the anti‐discrimination policies of the USES were failures and explores the reasons. Next, King traces the evolution of federal public housing and mortgage assistance programmes, focusing especially on the policies of the US Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and responses from organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Thomas H. Stanton
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199915996
- eISBN:
- 9780199950324
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199915996.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
Chapter 2 provides background on the financial crisis and how it evolved. There was an inflow of funds into the United States that compressed returns on investments. This made more risky investments ...
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Chapter 2 provides background on the financial crisis and how it evolved. There was an inflow of funds into the United States that compressed returns on investments. This made more risky investments attractive, such as subprime mortgages, on which borrowers paid higher interest rates than prime borrowers. The chapter describes the financial crisis as a two-step process. When housing prices began to decline and losses appeared in securities labelled AAA, and in derivative securities based on them, this threatened major firms that had greatly increased their leverage over the period. Firms became uncertain about their solvency and also about the solvency of counterparties that held these securities. The result was panic and an unwillingness of financial firms to provide credit to one another. Only massive government intervention saved the economy from another Great Depression.Less
Chapter 2 provides background on the financial crisis and how it evolved. There was an inflow of funds into the United States that compressed returns on investments. This made more risky investments attractive, such as subprime mortgages, on which borrowers paid higher interest rates than prime borrowers. The chapter describes the financial crisis as a two-step process. When housing prices began to decline and losses appeared in securities labelled AAA, and in derivative securities based on them, this threatened major firms that had greatly increased their leverage over the period. Firms became uncertain about their solvency and also about the solvency of counterparties that held these securities. The result was panic and an unwillingness of financial firms to provide credit to one another. Only massive government intervention saved the economy from another Great Depression.
Susan J. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199557431
- eISBN:
- 9780191721687
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557431.003.0011
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy, Finance, Accounting, and Banking
In the ‘home ownership’ societies of the English speaking world — where owner occupation is the tenure de rigueur, and mortgages are the respectable face of debt — borrowers, lenders, developers, and ...
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In the ‘home ownership’ societies of the English speaking world — where owner occupation is the tenure de rigueur, and mortgages are the respectable face of debt — borrowers, lenders, developers, and politicians are vying for the positions that gain most, and lose least, from the housing roller coaster, as it navigates a landscape of economic and environmental shocks. This jostling is hardly surprising, because housing is the world's largest class of assets, and its price appreciation has outstripped that of most other investments for more than a decade. But buying into housing can be a risky business, especially for ordinary households whose wealth tends to be concentrated within a single owned home where it increasingly forms an asset base for welfare. Strangely none of the financial instruments invented to manage this growing dependence on a narrow, sometimes volatile, and generally heavily leveraged, investment ‘portfolio’ — and which protect large institutions against the ups and downs of virtually every other major asset class (commodities, equities, bonds, and more) — are yet available for housing. Attempts to change this are, however, underway. This chapter weighs up their merits and limitations, considers whether they are likely to succeed, and comments on who gets what, where as a result.Less
In the ‘home ownership’ societies of the English speaking world — where owner occupation is the tenure de rigueur, and mortgages are the respectable face of debt — borrowers, lenders, developers, and politicians are vying for the positions that gain most, and lose least, from the housing roller coaster, as it navigates a landscape of economic and environmental shocks. This jostling is hardly surprising, because housing is the world's largest class of assets, and its price appreciation has outstripped that of most other investments for more than a decade. But buying into housing can be a risky business, especially for ordinary households whose wealth tends to be concentrated within a single owned home where it increasingly forms an asset base for welfare. Strangely none of the financial instruments invented to manage this growing dependence on a narrow, sometimes volatile, and generally heavily leveraged, investment ‘portfolio’ — and which protect large institutions against the ups and downs of virtually every other major asset class (commodities, equities, bonds, and more) — are yet available for housing. Attempts to change this are, however, underway. This chapter weighs up their merits and limitations, considers whether they are likely to succeed, and comments on who gets what, where as a result.
Omri Ben-Shahar and Carl E. Schneider
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161709
- eISBN:
- 9781400850389
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161709.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Perhaps no kind of regulation is more common or less useful than mandated disclosure—requiring one party to a transaction to give the other information. It is the iTunes terms you assent to, the ...
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Perhaps no kind of regulation is more common or less useful than mandated disclosure—requiring one party to a transaction to give the other information. It is the iTunes terms you assent to, the doctor's consent form you sign, the pile of papers you get with your mortgages. Reading the terms, the form, and the papers is supposed to equip you to choose your purchase, your treatment, and your loan well. This book surveys the evidence and finds that mandated disclosure rarely works. But how could it? Who reads these disclosures? Who understands them? Who uses them to make better choices? This book puts the regulatory problem in human terms. Most people find disclosures complex, obscure, and dull. Most people make choices by stripping information away, not layering it on. Most people find they can safely ignore most disclosures and that they lack the literacy to analyze them anyway. And so many disclosures are mandated that nobody could heed them all. Nor can all this be changed by simpler forms in plainer English, since complex things cannot be made simple by better writing. Furthermore, disclosure is a lawmakers' panacea, so they keep issuing new mandates and expanding old ones, often instead of taking on the hard work of writing regulations with bite. This book takes on the form of regulation we encounter daily and asks why we must encounter it at all.Less
Perhaps no kind of regulation is more common or less useful than mandated disclosure—requiring one party to a transaction to give the other information. It is the iTunes terms you assent to, the doctor's consent form you sign, the pile of papers you get with your mortgages. Reading the terms, the form, and the papers is supposed to equip you to choose your purchase, your treatment, and your loan well. This book surveys the evidence and finds that mandated disclosure rarely works. But how could it? Who reads these disclosures? Who understands them? Who uses them to make better choices? This book puts the regulatory problem in human terms. Most people find disclosures complex, obscure, and dull. Most people make choices by stripping information away, not layering it on. Most people find they can safely ignore most disclosures and that they lack the literacy to analyze them anyway. And so many disclosures are mandated that nobody could heed them all. Nor can all this be changed by simpler forms in plainer English, since complex things cannot be made simple by better writing. Furthermore, disclosure is a lawmakers' panacea, so they keep issuing new mandates and expanding old ones, often instead of taking on the hard work of writing regulations with bite. This book takes on the form of regulation we encounter daily and asks why we must encounter it at all.
Pushpa Prasad
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195684476
- eISBN:
- 9780199082100
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195684476.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
The Lekhapaddhati, whose translation with full annotation is offered in this volume, is unique in the whole body of ancient Sanskrit texts. It is a collection of actual or specimen documents (lekhas) ...
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The Lekhapaddhati, whose translation with full annotation is offered in this volume, is unique in the whole body of ancient Sanskrit texts. It is a collection of actual or specimen documents (lekhas) by unknown compiler, in use for public transactions, administration, rules for drafting land grants, treaties between kings, credit and banking system, mortgage deeds, creditor (dhanika/vyavahāraka) and debtor’s relations, judicial disputes, and private letters. Presumably, written as a guide for official scribes and professional letter writers, it is the sole non-epigraphic repository of grants and other public and private documents from early medieval India. These cover the eighth to the thirteenth centuries and relate to pre-Sultanate period of Gujarat. Their genuineness is shown by the fact that the texts of the royal grants or charter (patra) in this collection match closely with the texts from copper-plates. The large compass of other documents reveal many aspects of daily life, social customs which otherwise would remain obscure. Remarkable, for example, are the slavery deeds which show how much were girl slaves under the control of their masters and how caste taboos were utterly set aside where work by, or treatment of, female slaves was concerned. On what has been called ‘Indian feudalism’, the Lekhapaddhati’s evidence has been extensively used by the propounder’s of the theory as well as its critics. But it has to be remembered that the Lekhapaddhati has also much on trade, bills and drafts, land grants as a gift, and affairs of private life. Here we meet the lordly rulers, the stern officials, the gentlemen in town, the merchant, the slave master, the careless wife, and the forgetful husband. The book should appeal to those who want to look beyond the dynastic history, to the history of everyday life, private and official.Less
The Lekhapaddhati, whose translation with full annotation is offered in this volume, is unique in the whole body of ancient Sanskrit texts. It is a collection of actual or specimen documents (lekhas) by unknown compiler, in use for public transactions, administration, rules for drafting land grants, treaties between kings, credit and banking system, mortgage deeds, creditor (dhanika/vyavahāraka) and debtor’s relations, judicial disputes, and private letters. Presumably, written as a guide for official scribes and professional letter writers, it is the sole non-epigraphic repository of grants and other public and private documents from early medieval India. These cover the eighth to the thirteenth centuries and relate to pre-Sultanate period of Gujarat. Their genuineness is shown by the fact that the texts of the royal grants or charter (patra) in this collection match closely with the texts from copper-plates. The large compass of other documents reveal many aspects of daily life, social customs which otherwise would remain obscure. Remarkable, for example, are the slavery deeds which show how much were girl slaves under the control of their masters and how caste taboos were utterly set aside where work by, or treatment of, female slaves was concerned. On what has been called ‘Indian feudalism’, the Lekhapaddhati’s evidence has been extensively used by the propounder’s of the theory as well as its critics. But it has to be remembered that the Lekhapaddhati has also much on trade, bills and drafts, land grants as a gift, and affairs of private life. Here we meet the lordly rulers, the stern officials, the gentlemen in town, the merchant, the slave master, the careless wife, and the forgetful husband. The book should appeal to those who want to look beyond the dynastic history, to the history of everyday life, private and official.
Paul Langley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199236596
- eISBN:
- 9780191717079
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236596.003.0011
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
This concluding chapter begins with a discussion of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. It then reviews the discussions in the preceding chapters, addressing the conceptual themes of financial networks, ...
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This concluding chapter begins with a discussion of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. It then reviews the discussions in the preceding chapters, addressing the conceptual themes of financial networks, financial power, financial identity, and financial dissent.Less
This concluding chapter begins with a discussion of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. It then reviews the discussions in the preceding chapters, addressing the conceptual themes of financial networks, financial power, financial identity, and financial dissent.
Matthew P. Drennan
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300209587
- eISBN:
- 9780300216349
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209587.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Debt of households has been rising rapidly since 1995. The debt to income ratio of the bottom 95 percent of the income distribution has risen well above 140 percent. The same measure for the top five ...
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Debt of households has been rising rapidly since 1995. The debt to income ratio of the bottom 95 percent of the income distribution has risen well above 140 percent. The same measure for the top five percent has been stable near 60 percent for 25 years. Low interest rates, easy credit terms, subprime mortgages, and mortgage refinancings have all stimulated consumer borrowing. The housing bubble, nationwide, encouraged consumers to extract cash from their properties. Panel regressions relating per capita household debt to declining income shares by state of the bottom 80 percent show that as income shares decline household debt rises. Economic insecurity objectively measured has been rising. The share of household budgets spent on the necessities of housing, health care and education have risen for all quintiles. Prices of those three have exceeded inflation for 20 years. Stagnant incomes and rising prices for those necessities have lured households to take on more debt to sustain their standard of living.Less
Debt of households has been rising rapidly since 1995. The debt to income ratio of the bottom 95 percent of the income distribution has risen well above 140 percent. The same measure for the top five percent has been stable near 60 percent for 25 years. Low interest rates, easy credit terms, subprime mortgages, and mortgage refinancings have all stimulated consumer borrowing. The housing bubble, nationwide, encouraged consumers to extract cash from their properties. Panel regressions relating per capita household debt to declining income shares by state of the bottom 80 percent show that as income shares decline household debt rises. Economic insecurity objectively measured has been rising. The share of household budgets spent on the necessities of housing, health care and education have risen for all quintiles. Prices of those three have exceeded inflation for 20 years. Stagnant incomes and rising prices for those necessities have lured households to take on more debt to sustain their standard of living.
Louis Hyman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140681
- eISBN:
- 9781400838400
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140681.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter discusses the New Deal housing policy and the making of national mortgage markets. Though Franklin Roosevelt was sympathetic to housing the poor, his policies aimed, primarily, to grow ...
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This chapter discusses the New Deal housing policy and the making of national mortgage markets. Though Franklin Roosevelt was sympathetic to housing the poor, his policies aimed, primarily, to grow the economy and reduce unemployment. If this could be accomplished through housing the poor, all the better, but that was a secondary goal to restoring economic growth. Unlike the other housing programs of the New Deal, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) promised and achieved this growth. By 1939, investment in residential housing was nearly back to its 1929 levels. The flood of funds, guaranteed profits, and standardized policies initiated through the FHA changed the way banks operated forever, turning mortgages into nationally traded commodities—and in the process changing the way Americans related to banks and debt.Less
This chapter discusses the New Deal housing policy and the making of national mortgage markets. Though Franklin Roosevelt was sympathetic to housing the poor, his policies aimed, primarily, to grow the economy and reduce unemployment. If this could be accomplished through housing the poor, all the better, but that was a secondary goal to restoring economic growth. Unlike the other housing programs of the New Deal, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) promised and achieved this growth. By 1939, investment in residential housing was nearly back to its 1929 levels. The flood of funds, guaranteed profits, and standardized policies initiated through the FHA changed the way banks operated forever, turning mortgages into nationally traded commodities—and in the process changing the way Americans related to banks and debt.
Hendrik S. Houthakker and Peter J. Williamson
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195044072
- eISBN:
- 9780199832958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019504407X.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
The supply of securities is examined both in terms of the contractual characteristics and importance of each main type and the way in which the actual performance and supply of each over time is ...
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The supply of securities is examined both in terms of the contractual characteristics and importance of each main type and the way in which the actual performance and supply of each over time is influenced by the behavior of issuers. The analysis presented is with respect to the USA. The securities explored include government securities – municipal bonds and bonds of foreign governments and international organizations; corporate securities – equities and senior debt, takeovers, bonds, junk bonds, convertible securities; mutual fund shares; mortgages and mortgage‐backed securities. The chapter also includes discussion of the implications for the supply of securities of corporate financial policy, partnership units and business taxation, and claims on financial institutions.Less
The supply of securities is examined both in terms of the contractual characteristics and importance of each main type and the way in which the actual performance and supply of each over time is influenced by the behavior of issuers. The analysis presented is with respect to the USA. The securities explored include government securities – municipal bonds and bonds of foreign governments and international organizations; corporate securities – equities and senior debt, takeovers, bonds, junk bonds, convertible securities; mutual fund shares; mortgages and mortgage‐backed securities. The chapter also includes discussion of the implications for the supply of securities of corporate financial policy, partnership units and business taxation, and claims on financial institutions.
Stuart Lowe
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847422736
- eISBN:
- 9781447305514
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847422736.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
A key theme in this book is the idea that ‘housing’ is particularly in need of analysis over long time periods and how, as a result, it acts to embed social and political cultures. The first part of ...
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A key theme in this book is the idea that ‘housing’ is particularly in need of analysis over long time periods and how, as a result, it acts to embed social and political cultures. The first part of the book is an outline of the UK case using this perspective. In the long story of the growth of the home-owning society also lies the foundation of housing's impact on re-shaping the contemporary welfare state. This theme is taken up in the second part of the text. Housing has been a neglected area in the comparative welfare state literature, often not considered as a main welfare ‘pillar’. This book suggests that ‘bringing housing in’ is now essential because of the huge asset-base that it shelters arising from the growth of home ownership in most advanced industrial economies in the three decades up to 2006. There is a detailed discussion of the impact that the liberalisation of mortgage markets had in creating a surge in house prices and in the creation of thousands of products which enabled home owners to unlock their asset through re-mortgaging. This process is the bedrock of the idea of asset-based welfare, so that far from being marginalised and neglected, ‘housing’ turns out to be a key factor in shaping welfare state change. Key housing debates are outlined, notably concerning the demise of social housing, the persistence of major shortages in the housing stock and the consequences of the mortgage famine.Less
A key theme in this book is the idea that ‘housing’ is particularly in need of analysis over long time periods and how, as a result, it acts to embed social and political cultures. The first part of the book is an outline of the UK case using this perspective. In the long story of the growth of the home-owning society also lies the foundation of housing's impact on re-shaping the contemporary welfare state. This theme is taken up in the second part of the text. Housing has been a neglected area in the comparative welfare state literature, often not considered as a main welfare ‘pillar’. This book suggests that ‘bringing housing in’ is now essential because of the huge asset-base that it shelters arising from the growth of home ownership in most advanced industrial economies in the three decades up to 2006. There is a detailed discussion of the impact that the liberalisation of mortgage markets had in creating a surge in house prices and in the creation of thousands of products which enabled home owners to unlock their asset through re-mortgaging. This process is the bedrock of the idea of asset-based welfare, so that far from being marginalised and neglected, ‘housing’ turns out to be a key factor in shaping welfare state change. Key housing debates are outlined, notably concerning the demise of social housing, the persistence of major shortages in the housing stock and the consequences of the mortgage famine.
Stuart Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199258826
- eISBN:
- 9780191705168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199258826.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter discusses leases, mortgages, and servitudes in the 19th century. Topics covered include Types of Lease and the Power to Grant them, eviction and forfeiture, covenants, factors that ...
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This chapter discusses leases, mortgages, and servitudes in the 19th century. Topics covered include Types of Lease and the Power to Grant them, eviction and forfeiture, covenants, factors that shaped mortgage practice in the 19th century, evasion of usury laws, limits of contractual freedom, and servitudes and allied rights over land.Less
This chapter discusses leases, mortgages, and servitudes in the 19th century. Topics covered include Types of Lease and the Power to Grant them, eviction and forfeiture, covenants, factors that shaped mortgage practice in the 19th century, evasion of usury laws, limits of contractual freedom, and servitudes and allied rights over land.
Michael Bridge
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781854315816
- eISBN:
- 9780191705144
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9781854315816.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Company and Commercial Law
Providing a definition of personal property law, this book demonstrates why an understanding of the principles of personal property is important. In defining the various types, the author discusses ...
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Providing a definition of personal property law, this book demonstrates why an understanding of the principles of personal property is important. In defining the various types, the author discusses the common law interests (ownership and possession) and deals with the proprietary characteristic of bailment in the process. There is also an outline discussion of equitable interests. The author describes the means by which the common law protects interests in personal property and discusses the ways in which interests are conveyed at common law. He examines the rule of ‘nemo dat quod non habet’ with its various exceptions, and, in treating the assignment of choices in action, compares it with negotiability. Finally, there is an introduction to security over personal property in the form of lien, pledge, charge, and mortgage. Important changes since the first edition of this book include the Sale of Goods (Amendment) Act 1995 and the Treasure Act 1996.Less
Providing a definition of personal property law, this book demonstrates why an understanding of the principles of personal property is important. In defining the various types, the author discusses the common law interests (ownership and possession) and deals with the proprietary characteristic of bailment in the process. There is also an outline discussion of equitable interests. The author describes the means by which the common law protects interests in personal property and discusses the ways in which interests are conveyed at common law. He examines the rule of ‘nemo dat quod non habet’ with its various exceptions, and, in treating the assignment of choices in action, compares it with negotiability. Finally, there is an introduction to security over personal property in the form of lien, pledge, charge, and mortgage. Important changes since the first edition of this book include the Sale of Goods (Amendment) Act 1995 and the Treasure Act 1996.
Thomas H. Stanton
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199915996
- eISBN:
- 9780199950324
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199915996.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
Chapter 4 addresses governance and the financial crisis. Successful firms had strong CEOs who invited constructive dialogue, from the board of directors, their management team, and their risk ...
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Chapter 4 addresses governance and the financial crisis. Successful firms had strong CEOs who invited constructive dialogue, from the board of directors, their management team, and their risk officers. Good communications were essential for success. The chapter quotes a gentleman at a successful company who said proudly, “the CEO often asks my opinion on major issues,” and then added, “but he asks 200 other people their opinions too.” Unsuccessful firms often had dominant CEOs, weak boards, and risk managers that they disregarded. Unsuccessful firms were unequipped to deal with early warning signs that the mortgage market was weakening. Their leaders did not seem to have access to feedback so that they would ask and reflect on simple questions that could have raised warning flags. Problems were compounded by compensation systems that emphasized short-term rather than long-term financial performance.Less
Chapter 4 addresses governance and the financial crisis. Successful firms had strong CEOs who invited constructive dialogue, from the board of directors, their management team, and their risk officers. Good communications were essential for success. The chapter quotes a gentleman at a successful company who said proudly, “the CEO often asks my opinion on major issues,” and then added, “but he asks 200 other people their opinions too.” Unsuccessful firms often had dominant CEOs, weak boards, and risk managers that they disregarded. Unsuccessful firms were unequipped to deal with early warning signs that the mortgage market was weakening. Their leaders did not seem to have access to feedback so that they would ask and reflect on simple questions that could have raised warning flags. Problems were compounded by compensation systems that emphasized short-term rather than long-term financial performance.
Paul Langley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199236596
- eISBN:
- 9780191717079
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236596.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
Grounded in literature from the sociology of finance and international political economy, and informed by extensive empirical research, this book explores the unprecedented relationships that now ...
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Grounded in literature from the sociology of finance and international political economy, and informed by extensive empirical research, this book explores the unprecedented relationships that now bind Anglo-American society with the financial markets. As mutual funds have increased in popularity and pension provision has been transformed, many more individuals and households have come to invest in stocks and shares. As consumer borrowing has risen dramatically and mortgage finance has embraced those deemed sub-prime, so the repayments of credit card holders and mortgagors have provided the basis for the issue and trading of bonds and other market instruments. This book shows how financial market networks have come to extend well beyond Wall Street and the City of London, becoming embedded and embodied in routine saving and borrowing in the US and UK. Society's new-found relationships with the markets are also shown, however, to be marked by stark inequalities, manifest contradictions, and political dissent.Less
Grounded in literature from the sociology of finance and international political economy, and informed by extensive empirical research, this book explores the unprecedented relationships that now bind Anglo-American society with the financial markets. As mutual funds have increased in popularity and pension provision has been transformed, many more individuals and households have come to invest in stocks and shares. As consumer borrowing has risen dramatically and mortgage finance has embraced those deemed sub-prime, so the repayments of credit card holders and mortgagors have provided the basis for the issue and trading of bonds and other market instruments. This book shows how financial market networks have come to extend well beyond Wall Street and the City of London, becoming embedded and embodied in routine saving and borrowing in the US and UK. Society's new-found relationships with the markets are also shown, however, to be marked by stark inequalities, manifest contradictions, and political dissent.
Paul Langley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199236596
- eISBN:
- 9780191717079
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236596.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
This chapter focuses on the boom in everyday borrowing and the qualitative transformations in consumer credit and mortgage networks that have made it possible. This boom is situated in the two ...
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This chapter focuses on the boom in everyday borrowing and the qualitative transformations in consumer credit and mortgage networks that have made it possible. This boom is situated in the two principal sets of market networks of Anglo-American everyday borrowing — consumer credit and mortgage networks. It is argued that it is only through qualitative transformations in these networks, which include the forging of close relationships with the capital markets of ‘global finance’, that the boom has been made possible. The chapter also calls attention to the close interconnections that have become consolidated between mortgage and consumer credit networks, on the one hand, and the networks of the capital markets, on the other. It argues that the overlapping and intersecting of previously disconnected and detached networks has materialized through new calculative devices and performances which rationally figure and manage the uncertainties of future repayments by everyday borrowers as ‘default risks’. Particular attention is paid to the default risk management techniques of lenders — especially asset-backed securitization, but also so-called ‘structured finance’ and the use of credit derivatives — that turn on the issue and trading of default risk-related instruments in the capital markets.Less
This chapter focuses on the boom in everyday borrowing and the qualitative transformations in consumer credit and mortgage networks that have made it possible. This boom is situated in the two principal sets of market networks of Anglo-American everyday borrowing — consumer credit and mortgage networks. It is argued that it is only through qualitative transformations in these networks, which include the forging of close relationships with the capital markets of ‘global finance’, that the boom has been made possible. The chapter also calls attention to the close interconnections that have become consolidated between mortgage and consumer credit networks, on the one hand, and the networks of the capital markets, on the other. It argues that the overlapping and intersecting of previously disconnected and detached networks has materialized through new calculative devices and performances which rationally figure and manage the uncertainties of future repayments by everyday borrowers as ‘default risks’. Particular attention is paid to the default risk management techniques of lenders — especially asset-backed securitization, but also so-called ‘structured finance’ and the use of credit derivatives — that turn on the issue and trading of default risk-related instruments in the capital markets.
Paul Langley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199236596
- eISBN:
- 9780191717079
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236596.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
This chapter focuses on the embodiment of the borrowing boom, and the re-making of mortgagors and credit card borrowers in particular. The first part of the chapter concentrates on the responsible ...
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This chapter focuses on the embodiment of the borrowing boom, and the re-making of mortgagors and credit card borrowers in particular. The first part of the chapter concentrates on the responsible borrowers of contemporary credit card networks, a subject position referred to as the ‘revolver’. Revolvers not only regularly make use of the revolving credit facilities, but also manipulate their outstanding balances in order to further their consumptive freedom and security into the future. The second part of the chapter concentrates on the responsible and entrepreneurial borrower of contemporary Anglo-American mortgage networks. It suggests that mortgagors are no longer ‘suburban subjects’, that is, owner-occupiers who view their home as essential in meeting their aspirations. Rather, the borrowing boom in mortgage networks rests on the assembly of mortgagors as ‘leveraged investors’. Leveraged investors are owner-occupiers who view residential property as an asset that will grow to realize returns. The third and final part of the chapter considers the tensions and contradictions present in the assembly of responsible and entrepreneurial borrowers, and thereby reveal the incomplete and precarious performance of these subjectivities.Less
This chapter focuses on the embodiment of the borrowing boom, and the re-making of mortgagors and credit card borrowers in particular. The first part of the chapter concentrates on the responsible borrowers of contemporary credit card networks, a subject position referred to as the ‘revolver’. Revolvers not only regularly make use of the revolving credit facilities, but also manipulate their outstanding balances in order to further their consumptive freedom and security into the future. The second part of the chapter concentrates on the responsible and entrepreneurial borrower of contemporary Anglo-American mortgage networks. It suggests that mortgagors are no longer ‘suburban subjects’, that is, owner-occupiers who view their home as essential in meeting their aspirations. Rather, the borrowing boom in mortgage networks rests on the assembly of mortgagors as ‘leveraged investors’. Leveraged investors are owner-occupiers who view residential property as an asset that will grow to realize returns. The third and final part of the chapter considers the tensions and contradictions present in the assembly of responsible and entrepreneurial borrowers, and thereby reveal the incomplete and precarious performance of these subjectivities.
