Global Financial Crisis: Finding a better way to assess systemic risk and prevent its buildup in good times is a key to improving regulation following the financial market crisis, an article says in December's IMF quarterly magazine Finance and Development.

Other priorities are improving transparency and disclosure of risks being taken by various market participants; expanding the cross-institutional and cross-border scope of regulation while safeguarding constructive diversity; and putting in place mechanisms for more effective and coordinated actions, writes Noel Sacasa, author of the article "Preventing Future Crises."

Other articles in the December F&D, which explores the theme "Cracks in the System: World Economy under Stress," highlight—among other topics—how the world got into the financial crisis and what to do about it, the case for modernizing the multilateral framework, and the impact of the crisis on growth.

Cracks in the System: Repairing the Damaged Global Economy
Olivier Blanchard
The global economy is facing its worst crisis in 60 years, triggering fears of a long, deep recession. The task ahead is to design new rules and institutions to reduce systemic risks without stifling innovation.

A Crisis to Remember
Mohamed A. El-Erian
The financial system will not reset to what it looked like just a year ago, and the longer-term impact will change the fundamentals of the world economy. All this accentuates the need for urgent and bold modernization of the multilateral framework.

The Crisis through the Lens of History
Charles Collyns
The most important lesson from every financial crisis since the Great Depression is to act early, to act aggressively, and to act comprehensively to deal with financial strains. The priority must be to quench the fire, even if unorthodox measures are needed.

Stockholm Solutions
Stefan Ingves and Göran Lind
Sweden and other Nordic countries went through systemic financial crises in the early 1990s. A crucial lesson from the Nordic experience is the need for prominent state involvement in crisis resolution through restructuring and asset value protection.

The Road to Recovery: A View from Japan
Kenneth Kang and Murtaza Syed
Japan's financial crisis a decade and a half ago evokes an unmistakable sense of déjà vu amid the current turmoil. Japan's story shows that here is nothing like a crisis to bring to light—and build popular support for—much-needed reforms.

When Crises Collide
Stijn Claessens, M. Ayhan Kose, and Marco E. Terrones
Earlier episodes of recessions, crunches, and busts are sobering, suggesting that recessions following the current financial crisis may be more costly because they are likely to take place alongside simultaneous credit crunches and asset price busts.

Global Financial Turmoil Tests Asia
Kenneth Kang and Jacques Miniane
Any hope that Asia would escape the global financial crisis has by now evaporated. How Asia withstands the shock of both slower world growth and a spreading financial crisis is critical not only for the region, but for the world as a whole.

The Catch-Up Game
Michael Spence and Mahmoud Mohieldin served on a panel of policymakers and academics that looked at what it takes to generate sustained high economic growth. Archana Kumar asked them what makes countries grow, in good times and bad.

People in Economics
From Visionary to Innovator
Paolo Mauro
In some of his best-selling books, economist Robert Shiller—known for identifying speculative bubbles at an early stage—has made the case for creating new financial markets in which individuals would be able to diversify away the most important risks affecting them.