Nektarios Michail - Money Credit and Crises: Understanding the Modern Banking System

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This book started off about three years ago, in an effort to fully grasp what went on with the world at the time. The first topic I had aimed to examine was the efficiency of quantitative easing policies, now Chapter of this book. In the process of finding out as much as I could about the topic, I realized that there was a lack of easy-to-read material. While academic studies, blog posts, and speeches, are aplenty, there is no simple mans guide to what this policy was all about. So I decided to create one.

In the process of this creation, I realized that an article on its own would have been pointless. How could I refer to the economics of the banking sector if there was no explanation about them before? In order to understand how quantitative easing works, one needs to understand how the world of banking works. This led to another issue: how could one appreciate the world of banking at this point in time, without looking at all the other policies which shaped it, such as deposit insurance ? Nonetheless, to look at them one would have to go back in time and elaborate on what went on during that period that caused such a paradigm shift in policy. After all of this, and many other similar thoughts and realizations, the quantitative easing chapter ended up second to last, enriched with other policy measures assumed in the last ten years.

While writing, I have always aimed to keep things as simple as possible. I find no reason for unnecessary complexity, especially if ideas, notions, and policies can be explained on the basis of a few basic principles. That said, the reader of this book should rest assured that just everyday knowledge about banking should be enough to go through it without any issue. I have assumed that the reader has only a very basic understanding of what the banking sector is and I have (hopefully) proceeded with explaining most notions as simply and thoroughly as possible.

In my mind, this book is aimed at anyone who wishes to better understand a sector which is usually riddled with mystery given that most people tend to focus on just a few parts of it. It was one of the promises I made that the focus would have been on the forest and not on the trees. As such, I have refrained from too narrowly focusing on the particulars (other than explaining their workings and effects that is) and have instead offered the big picture regarding the sector. I hope that the book will provide you with much insights and expand your knowledge on how banks work in the current environment.

Naturally, over the course of writing this book, there have been many people who have helped me in clearing my thoughts, provided me with more knowledge on the topic, or supported me along the way. My editor, Tula Weis has been extremely supporting and patient with my delays, and so have Lucy Kidwell and Balaji Varadharaju from Palgrave Macmillan and Springer Nature respectively. I would like to thank Christos Savva and Demetris Koursaros for the interesting discussions and support they have offered me since my doctoral years. Furthermore, I would like to thank the research team at the Central Bank of Cyprus, namely, George Kyriacou, Pany Karamanou, George Thucydides, Ioanna Evangelou, Charis Charalambous, Angelos Roussos, Maria Mithilou, and particularly Lena Cleanthous and Christiana Aristodemou.

Many thanks go Agorasti Patronidou, whose help in drafting Chapter (Financial Instability) has been invaluable. I owe a great deal of gratitude to Christos Vassis for meticulously going through the whole book and providing insightful comments and suggestions. Naturally, family support has been paramount throughout these years. Naturally, all remaining errors are my own.