Synopses & Reviews
In this book, leading thinkers confront what is to be done about the clearly unstable world economic system. They examine a raft of different ideas and approaches, including: how do we renew the process of governance of the global economy?; can the IMF be reformed?; do we need a new World Financial Authority?; is there a case for capital controls?; what effective measures are needed to relieve the most deeply indebted countries? These questions are set in the context of understanding what has happened under the aegis of neo-liberalist economic thinking and policy. Fundamental questions are raised about recasting economic institutions and strategies on the basis of democratically controlled, environmentally compatible alternative lines.
Synopsis
In this important policy- and campaign-relevant volume, economists, intellectuals and NGO leaders from both North and South confront what has now become the central issue of the new globalized world economy. Ever since the Asian crisis of 1997 threatened a chain-reaction of economic destabilisation, governments, the IMF, even the G7, and even George Soros, have concluded that something needs to be done. This volume examines the range of different ideas and approaches they have come up with. Among the issues examined are:
* How do we go about renewing the process of governance of the global economy?
* Can the IMF be reformed?
* Do we need a new World Financial Authority?
* Is there a case for capital controls?
* Could an international bankruptcy procedure be set up for countries, emulating the US's Chapter 11 for companies?
* Is the Tobin Tax on foreign currency transactions part of the solution?
* What effective steps need to be taken in relation to the most deeply indebted countries?
Contributors include Walden Bello, John Cavanagh, Susan George, Carlos Fortin, Martin Khor, Rodney Schmidt and others. They set their suggestions in the context of understanding what has happened during the past two decades of neo-liberalism's hegemonic position over economic thinking and policy. And they put up for discussion a fundamental recasting of economic institutions and strategies on the basis of democratically controlled, environmentally compatible alternative lines.
As the political momentum for serious institutional reform at the global level mounts, the ideas in this book will increasingly be on the international policy agenda.
Table of Contents
Introduction--Walden Bello & Nicola Bullard * Notes on the Ascendancy and Regulation of Speculative Capital--Walden Bello, Kamal Malhotra, Nicola Bullard & Marco Mezzera * A Short History of Neo-Liberalism--Susan George * Practical Proposals--Carlos Fortin * Renewing the Governance of the Global Economy--Kamal Malhotra * Their Reforms and Ours--Patrick Bond * The Death of the Washington Consensus?--Robin Broad & John Cavanagh * Can the IMF be Reformed?--Richard Leaver * Can Global Finance be Regulated?--Manfred Bienefeld * Putting People Before Profits--Jessica Woodroffe * Why Capital Controls and International Debt--Martin Khor * The Debate about Capital Controls--Sumangala Damodaram * China: The Case for Capital Controls--Yu Yongding * An International Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Procedure and Special Drawing Rights--Zhiyan Cui * The Tobin Tax and the Regulation of Capital Movements--Bruno Letin & Suzanne de Brunhoff * A Feasible Foreign Exchange Transactions Tax--Rodney Schmidt