CRESC's new book After the Great Complacence: Financial Crisis and the Politics of Reform was published in September. Now the authors have summarised the argument in a new CRESC Working Paper, Groundhog Day: elite power, democratic disconnects and the failure of financial reform in the UK. For details of this please see our press release

The book, co-authored by Ewald Engelen, Ismail Erturk, Julie Froud, Sukhdev Johal, Adam Leaver, Michael Moran, Adriana Nilsson and Karel WIlliams, takes a long hard look at the consequences of the 1986 'Big Bang' deregulation by Mrs Thatcher's Conservative administration. Did the dergulation lead to the 2008 financial crisis? Yes say the authors in a tightly argued thesis.

But the real issue is the relationship between finance and politics. How can - and should - financial transactions be regulated in a democracy? This becomes difficult when financial bricolage leads to the creation of long chains, circuits of transactions and instruments that allow bankers to earn fees, but fail to take account of uncertainties in part because the risks have become opaque even to those who create them. And then it becomes doubly difficult when regulators and politicians detach themselves from these processes in a 'light touch approach'. And then, the problem is lethally compounded when decision about regulation are captured by interested parties. 'In the authors' view the financial crisis was neither an unfortunate accident, nor an irresponsible conspiracy, but an elite political debacle.' The answer? Social scientists, governments and citizens will need to re-engage with the political dimensions of finance.

As the world economy struggle with further financial crisis and moves towards a double dip recession, this book is an exciting, timely and vitally important contribution to debates about the economy.

The book is now available from Amazon - and see also post publication press coverage in the Observer and the Yorkshire Post.