Financial Article Review
Syed M Razvi
Kaplan University

Financial Article Review The topic of Taylor’s keynote speech is not an original one: he wants to know, share, and understand how the financial crisis in the first decade of the 21st century occurred. The method or approaching in tackling this issue is more original: he contends that some of the greatest factors influencing the onset of financial catastrophe are due to policies. At the heart of Taylor’s argument is the presence of policies that created a sort of breeding ground for such a crisis to occur. The time periods of his focus are the years 2000 – 2008 (Taylor & Speaker, 2008). Taylor refers to a loose-fitting monetary policy as one of catalysts for the crisis (Taylor & Speaker, 2008). Throughout the speech, there are charts and graphs that reflect, analyze, or synthesize the text/speech, so as to avoid redundancy. He states that a loose-fitting monetary policy contributed to the historic drops in interest rates from 2001 – 2004, improving by 2006, but never reaching the heights seen in 2000. He contends that the choice to lower the interests rates were in response to counteracting the problem of deflation, from which Japan suffered in the 1990s (Taylor & Speaker, 2008). After spending some time deliberating upon the local reasons why the crisis occurred, he expands his search for the reasons of the financial crisis on a global scale. Taylor explains the logic behind how the investment choices of companies, markets, governments, and industries influence and connect with the policy-making that leads to the crisis. Though Taylor is careful not to pinpoint a singular root or cause, throughout his speech, he does leave hints with regard two areas that he perceives are ripe for further investigation and insight. Taylor considers relationships and networks as part of the context of the crisis and is not a limited, linear perspective of cause and effect for the crisis (Taylor & Speaker, 2008). This perspective is more convincing and open minds up to the possibility of change or thinking with innovation with respect to the problems of the financial crisis, rather than arguing the strength and validity of a singular point of view repeatedly (Claessens, Dell’Ariccia, Igan & Laeven, 2010). Certainly, Taylor could not speak about the financial crisis of the early 21st century without mentioning mortgages. Even readers with a superficial awareness of the financial crisis know that housing and mortgages were very important in the financial crisis. Taylor references Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in conjunction with the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 that did not get passed into law, which left a lot of people very vulnerable as the crisis hit and in the aftermath (Taylor & Speaker, 2008). Finally, Taylor reflects upon the factors and circumstances that prolonged this critical situation. He definitely uses the speech as an opportunity to use the clarity of hindsight to