大象传媒

Financial lawsuits, banking crises and economic stagnation - can they all be solved by throwing more money at the problem, and if so where does it come from?

Why do financial firms sometimes give up and pay out in the face of legal action, even if they insist they did nothing wrong? Timothy Spangler of the University of California Los Angeles sets out why private equity firms, banks and others sometimes decide it's best to settle.

How do we make the banking sector safer for everybody - reduce the risk of crises and the need for taxpayer bailouts when a bank does get into trouble? Anat Admati of Stanford University says banks should raise more money from shareholders and rely less on borrowing.

And talking of money, another economist tells us that central banks should give cash to the poorest 80% of households, as a way of stimulating economic recovery. Mark Blyth of Brown University says it would be more effective than quantitative easing, which involves pumping money into the financial markets. He says just pump into our bank accounts instead.