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 and Nicola Bullard
1. Notes on the Ascendancy and Regulation of Speculative Capital - Walden Bello, Kamal Malhotra, Nicola Bullard and Marco Mezzera
Finance Capital Unbound
Key Features of Finance Capitalism
Globalization's Volatile Engine
Finance Capital and the South
Speculative Crisis: Two Case Studies
Mexico: A Supply-Driven Crisis
Southeast Asia: Volatility Sinks a Development Model
The Three Schools of Global Financial Reform
'It's the Wiring, not the Architecture'
'Back to the Bretton Woods System'
'It's the Development Model, Stupid!'
De-globalizing the Domestic Economy
2. A Short History of Neo-Liberalism: 20 Years of Elite Economics and Emerging Oppportunities for Structural Change - Susan George
3. Practical Proposals: THe UN System and Financial Regulation - Carlos Fortin
4. Renewing the Governance of the Global Economy - Kamal Malhotra
Rethinking Sustainable Human and Social Development
The National Level
The Regional Level
The Global Level
Who's Wagging Whom?
5. Their Reforms or Ours: The Balance of Forces and Economic Analysis that Inform a New Global Financial Architecture - Patrick Bond
The Array of Forces Contesting Global Finance
Scales of Political Reform
6. The Death of the Washington Consensus? - Robin Broad and John Cavanagh
The Reign of the Washington Consensus
Attack on Consensus: The Discrediting of Free Trade
Cracks in the Consensus: Hot Money and the Wall Street-Treasury Complex
Further Openings in the Consensus
A New Development Debate
7. Can the IMF be Reformed? - Richard Leaver
Avoiding the Void
Questions of Power ?
? and Purpose
The End of the Game?
8. Can Global Finance be Regulated? - Manfred Bienefeld
Can and Should Global Finance be Regulated?
The Standard Mainstream Argument for Financial Deregulation
The Problem of Regulating Finance in an Increasingly Global World
Factors Making National Financial Regulation More or Less Difficult
Conclusions
9. Putting People before Profits: Proposals for the Regulation of Foreign Investment - Jessica Woodroffe
The Problem
Getting It Right
An International Investment Agreement
Enabling Governments to Attract Quality Investment
Maintaining Standards
Beyond the Core Standards
The Enforcer
A Core Standards Commission
Balancing National Sovereignty and Individual Rights
Complementary International Action
National Action
Annex: The Core Standards
10. Why Capital Controls and International Debt Restructuring Mechanisms are Necessary to Prevent and Manage Crises - Martin Khor
A Brief Analysis of the Malaysian Measures
Some Responses to the Malaysian Move
Krugman, Breaking the Academic Taboo on Capital Controls
The Turning Tide Against Free-Market Orthodoxy
Using Capital Controls to Prevent and Manage Financial Crises
Orderly Debt Workout for Debt-Crisis Countries
Time for Regulation
11. The Debate about Capital Controls: Issues in Capital Account Convertibility - Sumangala Damodaram
Some Essential Concepts
The Pros and Cons of Capital Account Convertibility
Current Issues in Capital Controls and Capital Account Convertibility
Conclusion
12. China: The Case for Capital Controls - Yu Yongding
Capital Controls in China
The Evasion of Capital Controls
China's Efforts in Maintaining the Balance of International Payments
Final Observations
13. An International Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Procedure and Special Drawing Rights - Zhiyan Cui
The First Implication
Credit Rationing
Equity Rationing
Multiplier Effect and Recession
The Second Implication
SDR as a Crucial Device in International Chapter 11
14. The Tobin Tax and the Regulation of Capital Movements - Bruno Jetin and Suzanne de Brunhoff
The Objective, Usefulness, and Limitations of the Tobin Tax
Three Additional Benefits of the Tobin Tax
The Limitations of the Tobin Tax
What are the Fundamental Objections to the Tobin Tax?
Is the Tobin Tax Feasible?
Conclusion
15. A Feasible Foreign Exchange Transactions Tax - Rodney Schmidt
Overview of the Argument
A Tax on Interbank Foreign Exchange Transactions
Settling Interbank Foreign Exchange Transactions
Domestic Payment Systems
Netting Systems
Contracts for Differences
Requirements of a Feasible Transactions Tax
Identifying Foreign Exchange Transactions
Enforcing Tobin's Tax in Offshore Netting Systems
Taxing Foreign Exchange Derivatives
How to Implement a Foreign Exchange Transactions Tax
Notes to the Figures
Index
Tables and Figures
5.1 Five Reactions to the Global Crisis (126)
12.1: China's Balance of Payments, 1994-97
12.2: The Major Forms of Evading the Capital Controls of the Government
15.1: Settling a Foreign Exchange Trade in Domestic Payments Systems
