The balance sheet perspective gives new insights into the nature of fi nancial contagion in the modern, market-based fi nancial system. Aggregate liquidity can be understood as the rate of growth of aggregate balance sheets. When fi nancial intermediaries’ balance sheets are generally strong, their leverage is too low. The fi nancial intermediaries hold surplus capital, and they will attempt to fi nd ways in which they can employ their surplus capital. In a loose analogy with manufacturing fi rms, we may see the fi nancial system as having “surplus capacity”. For such surplus capacity to be utilized, the.
