Relax and Explode: How Financial Deregulation and Loose Monetary Policy Contributed to the 2003-2007 LBO Boom

Abstract

This paper first details the general academic theory behind leveraged buyouts and then explores the financial deregulation effort undertaken by Congress and the Federal Reserve Board throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The piece demonstrates how changes in governmental decisions, specifically this deregulatory effort, coupled with lax monetary policy conducted by the Fed during Alan Greenspan’s reign, contributed to the 2003-2007 LBO boom.