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The Global Financial Crisis

It is now more than a year since the sub-prime lending crisis in the US mortgage sector came to light. The unprecedented and still unfolding financial crisis in the developed world brings with it the end of the illusion of the market being ''efficient''. This is the time for a fundamental rethinking on financial liberalisation in order to reduce systemic and global instability. This section presents papers and articles that seek to explain the causes and consequences of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. Through a critique of the underlying structure and dynamics of deregulated finance, they analyse how this crisis has led to a generalized credit crunch in other financial sectors, which ultimately affects the real economy and the world economy at large.

  • What is Minsky All About, Anyway?
    Korkut Ertürk & Gökcer Özgür
        
  • A Comparison of Two Cycles in the World Economy: 1989-2007
    Korkut Boratav

      
  • G20: How Not to Rule the World
    Jayati Ghosh
        
  • Recommendations of the UN Expert Commission on Finance
         
  • The Global Crisis: The UN Could Make the Difference
    C.P. Chandrasekhar

       
  • The G20 and the HIRCs
    Oscar Ugarteche
       
  • Why more of the same will not work
    Jayati Ghosh
Featured Articles
Vertically Integrated Unit Labour Costs by Sector: Mexico and USA 1970-2000
Pablo Ruiz-Nápoles
Real effective exchange rates have been calculated by relative unit labour costs for many countries in the world economy. In this paper we develop a methodology to estimate vertically integrated unit labour costs by sector, using input-output techniques, for the Mexican and US economies in the period 1970-2000. The results are then compared with the measurement of ‘Revealed’ Comparative Advantage by sector, of the Mexican economy, in order to establish whether Mexican foreign trade by sector was related to its relative labour costs, during this period. To test this relationship, econometric analysis for panel data is utilized.
 
Globalisation and Health, 1980 - 2000: Pathways of Impact and Initial Evidence
Giovanni Andrea Cornia, Stefano Rosignoli & Luca Tiberti
This paper tries to shed light on the relation between globalisation policies and health and argues that globalization policies contributed – through different pathways - to a slowdown in the pace of improvement of the social determinants of health. This caused, in turn, a corresponding deceleration (relative to the 1960-80 trends) in health gains in several regions and also globally. The authors, though not claiming to provide a final conclusion, argue that there is strong enough case to believe that the unsatisfactory health trends of the Globalization Era is related to a premature and acritical application of liberalisation-globalisation policies.
Migration and Gender Empowerment: Recent Trends and Emerging Issues
Jayati Ghosh
This paper attempts to study the issue of women migrant labourers as women today form a significant section of national and international migrants. The process of migration, and how that can be gender-differentiated, is discussed with particular reference to the various types of female migration that are common: marriage migration, family migration, forced migration and migration for work. The paper also explores the issues and problems of women migrants in the process of migration and in the destination country.
 
Rethinking Macro Economic Strategies from a Human Rights Perspective
Radhika Balakrishnan, Diane Elson & Rajeev Patel.
This report is a follow up to the previous report of 2005. Amidst the ongoing financial crisis, the report provides the basis for the political agenda that must be advanced in order to ensure that the fundamental rights and interests of the "sufferers" are protected and expanded. This document proposes a novel focus and methodology to evaluate macroeconomic policies from the perspective of the progressive realization of the people's economic and social human rights, and the States' compliance with their minimal, basic responsibilities to their people.
 
Featured Articles
Corporate and Cooperative Solutions for the Agrarian Crisis in Developing Countries
Sripad Motiram &
Vamsi Vakulabharanam
This article discusses credit and marketing arrangements for small farmers in developing countries.
The authors draw on the mixed experience with agricultural cooperatives in developing countries to
present the design of a credit and marketing cooperative.
 
Redistribution and Stability: Beyond the Keynesian / neo-liberal impasse
Harry Shutt
Answer to the current economic problems does not lie in a return to Keynesian policies of yesteryear. Rather a permanent solution lies in the fundamental shift in the goal of economic policymaking from growth maximisation to income distribution.
 
IDEAs Working Paper Series
IDEAs Working Papers
 
A Perspective on the Growth Process in India and China
Prabhat Patnaik  
 
 

                                           IDEAs Working Paper no. 05/2009
    
The Natural Instability of Financial Markets
Jan Kregel 
                                           IDEAs Working Paper no. 04/2009
 
IDEAs Activities
  • International Conference on "Re-regulating Global Finance in the Light of the Global Crisis", Beijing, China, 9-12 April, 2009.
Events & Announcements
  • UNRISD Conference & Call for Papers
    Social and Political Dimensions of the Global Crisis:Implications for Developing Countries

    (Deadline for submissions extended to 22 June 2009.)
       
  • Rethinking Marxism 2009 conference: New Marxian Times, University of Massachusetts, Amherst on 5-8 November 2009.
 
News Analysis
Reflections on the Left
Prabhat Patnaik

The results of the recent Indian election suggest that the Left needs to pursue its resistance to imperialism along with an alternative approach to “development”, which defends the interests of its class base. If the Left abandons anti-imperialism, it will not only erode its existing class base, but also push the "basic classes" into the arms of extremist ideologies.

Inflation Fears and Commodity Prices
Jayati Ghosh

Even as the global downturn continues to cause trade flows to decline and jobs to be lost, there may be upward pressure on certain prices in the near future. However, unlike the monetarist arguments, the reasons for the expected inflationary spiral lie not in fiscal expansion or in supply-demand mismatch. Instead, they reflect the continuing possibility that financial speculation can cause sharp changes in the prices of commodities in the world market.

Will Pinning the Blame on China Help Correct Global Imbalances?
Terry McKinley

US' propensity to live beyond its means is the central source of the current exacerbated state of global imbalances. Trying to shift the blame onto China serves only to cloud this reality.

Finance Capital and Fiscal Deficits
Prabhat Patnaik

Economic explanations for the opposition of finance to increased borrowing-financed government expenditure are inadequate. The real basis of the opposition is political. The “social legitimacy” of capitalism gets seriously compromised by the fact that State expenditure can take the economy to near-full employment irrespective of the “state of confidence” of the capitalists.

The Global Financial Community
Prabhat Patnaik

Lenin in Imperialism had talked about a financial oligarchy presiding over vast amounts of money capital through its control over banks and using this capital for diverse purposes. In the current epoch of ''globalization'' when finance capital itself is international in character, the controllers of this international finance capital constitute a global financial oligarchy.

Immigration in a Development Context
Manuel Riesco

While developing countries discuss a lot about migration from developing countries, it is the latter that has to face the problem more. Migration from developing countries to developed countries is much less than migration faced by developing countries, either from less developed neighbours, or from the hinterlands to the industrial bases.

Lessons from Global Corporate Frauds
Jayati Ghosh

Neo-classical policies, when they are adopted wholesale, sow the seeds of their own destruction by bringing about a wave of control frauds. When control frauds produce bubbles, they drive the market into deep inefficiency and can produce economic stagnation once the bubble collapses.

How did China reduce Rural Poverty?
C.P. Chandrasekhar &
Jayati Ghosh

Poverty reduction in China is frequently seen as the result of the rapid export-led industrialisation of the country following its market-oriented reforms. But the article argues that the main factors were institutional changes in rural areas, especially land reforms, which enabled the peasantry to take advantage of terms of trade movements in their favour.

 
  © International Development
Economics Associates 2009
 

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