home | about IDEAs | contact | archives  
Search
 
Featured Themes
Re-regulating Finance

Following the financial crisis, much has been done for preventing systemic failure in the financial sector, stalling economic downturn and ensuring a recovery. However, the adequacy and appropriateness of the measures adopted remain questionable. As far as reforming the financial sector is concerned, despite a spate of proposals, agreement on the appropriate mix of policies and the progress with implementation have been limited. This section presents papers and articles that analyse the adequacy of various proposals and measures, the challenges that could arise at the time of implementation and advocate additional or alternative measures. Some of these papers also take a renewed look at the veracity of the arguments given for explaining the genesis of the crisis.

  • The WTO as Barrier to Financial Regulation
    Jayati Ghosh

        
  • The Perils of Paradigm Maintenance in the Face of the Crisis
    Andrew Fischer

         
  • No Going Back: Why We Cannot Restore Glass-Steagall’s Segregation
    Of Banking And Finance

    Jan Kregel

        
  • Controlling Dangerous Financial Products through a Financial Precautionary Principle
    Gerald Epstein and James Crotty

        
  • The Theory of the Global ''Savings Glut''
    Prabhat Patnaik
        
  • Financial Innovation and System Design
    Mario Tonveronachi

       
  • Financial Regulation and the Lobbying Activities of the Financial
    Sector

    Carlo Panico and Antonio Pinto

        
  • Financial and Economic Crisis in Eastern Europe
    Rainer Kattel

        
  • Productive Incoherence in an Uncertain World: Financial Governance, Policy Space and Development after the Global Crisis
    Ilene Grabel
The Global Financial Crisis
  • The Global Financial Crisis and After: A New Capitalism?
    Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira

        
  • The Limits of Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis as an Explanation of the Crisis
    Thomas I. Palley
IDEAs Activities
  • International Conference on 'Recovery or Bubble? The Global Economy Today', organised by International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs), Gulmohar Hall, Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi, 29-30 January 2010.
        
  • IDEAs Conference on "Reforming the Financial System: Proposals, Constraints and New Directions", Muttukadu, Chennai, India,
    January 25-27, 2010.
Featured Articles
Towards Genuine Universalism within Contemporary Development Policy
Andrew Fischer

It is very difficult to know the impact
of the MDGs on poverty reduction. On one hand, poverty measurements are ambigous and on the other hand, the mechanisms by which MDGs affect poverty reduction are not clear. This article argues that the MDGs should be replaced by a re-politicisation of the mainstream development agenda, together with a genuine revival of emphasis on universalistic modes of social policy as viable means of dealing simultaneously with poverty and inequality.

 
The Terrible Simplifers: Common Origins of Financial Crises and Persistent Poverty in Economic Theory and the new '1848 Moment'
Erik S. Reinert
The paper argues that long periods
of economic progress in the core countries lead to increasingly abstract and irrelevant economic theories ('terrible simplifications'). This leads to turning points towards more relevant economic theories. The author also outlines the key variables that need to be re-introduced into economic theory in order to furnish poor countries with
the type of productive structures that makes it possible to eliminate poverty.
 
Alternatives
Looking to the Future: Examining the dynamics of ALBA
Emine Tahsin
This paper examines whether and to what extent the experiences of ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples
of Our America) succeed in putting up an ideological challenge against neoliberalism. The path of the socialist Cuba and the Bolivarian revolution of Venezuela are the main driving forces
of the ALBA project. As a result, socio-economic development on the basis of equity and complementarity has been realized under ALBA integration. ALBA has also played a role in reducing the vulnerabilities of the Cuban economy.
 
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. The authors argue that in conjunction with
other state policies, this arrangement works better for small farmers than other alternatives, in particular
corporate ones.
 
IDEAs Working Paper Series
IDEAs Working Papers
 
The Unnatural Coupling: Food and Global Finance
Jayati Ghosh  
 
 

                                           IDEAs Working Paper no. 08/2009
    
A Comparison of Two Cycles in the World Economy: 1989-2007
Korkut Boratav  
 
 

                                           IDEAs Working Paper no. 07/2009
 
Events & Announcements
  • Corporate Strategy and Industrial Development (CSID) Advert for Senior Researcher
        
  • Economists' Committee for Stable, Accountable, Fair and Efficient Financial Reform.
       
  • Call for Applications for the Hyman P. Minsky Summer Seminar at The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, Blithewood, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, June 19-29, 2010.
        
  • Call for Papers for the "First International Conference in Political Economy", Rethymnon, Crete, September 10-12, 2010.
 
News Analysis
Are we Heading for Another Global Primary Commodity Price Surge?
C.P. Chandrasekhar &
Jayati Ghosh

Following the unprecedented volatility of global commodity prices in 2007-08, it was widely predicted that the global economic crisis would generate a dampening effect on such prices. But the recent revival of prices especially in some commodities suggests that this perception may be premature. Examining recent trends in global commodity prices and the reasons behind them, the article assesses the prospects for prices in the immediate future.

Cloud over Islamic Banking
C.P. Chandrasekhar &
Jayati Ghosh

The large surpluses which accumulated with West Asian oil exporters after the 1970s generated a demand for financial products that were sharia-compliant. The Islamic financial industry, which grew as a result, was seen as a different and safer component of the global financial sector. But the Dubai World debacle and much else suggests that these judgments were not warranted.

The Decade of Living Dangerously: CEOs and Capitalism
Jayati Ghosh

The policy-created bubble in the US housing and financial sectors during 2002-2007 was only a repeat of the earlier 1990s process, albeit on an even larger scale. While the current crisis has once again brought to the fore the crucial role played by fraud and deceit in the accumulation of capital in a capitalist system, global capitalism may still manage to reinvent itself

Sovereign Default in the Core?
C.P. Chandrasekhar

The possibility of sovereign default flagged in by Dubai World together with the changed distribution of sovereign debt globally has created a new context: it is not governments of poor developing countries that are now the principal source of danger, but the metropolitan centres of capitalism.

Bye-Bye Dubai?
C.P. Chandrasekhar &
Jayati Ghosh

The near default of the biggest state conglomerate of Dubai has sent shock waves across global markets. Analysing the factors behind Dubai's recent growth and the causes of the current crisis, the authors argue that the collapse of the Dubai dream is not a sui generis event without any implications for wider markets. Rather, it may be a straw in the wind indicating that the travails of finance capitalism in the current period are far from over.

Recovery or Bubble?
C.P. Chandrasekhar

Although the US's policy of easy money triggered a recovery in some economies, it has generated a bubble similar to the one that preceded the 2008 downturn. Thus the emerging story of a new speculative boom and a fresh bubble driven by finance capital has led to growing fears of a second downturn or double dip recession.

A Tax to Rein in Finance
C.P. Chandrasekhar

Even though there have been many dissenters to the proposal of imposing a tax on financial transactions, the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's declaration in support of such a tax has given a new lease of life to the idea that just will not go away.

A Note on the Nature and Sources of Chinese Recovery
Vineet Kohli

With the help of data for the first three quarters of 2009, this note seeks to examine the nature of Chinese recovery. Three features of the Chinese recovery process are undeniable: the recovery has been state led, investment led and tertiary sector led. Stock and real estate market booms have accompanied the growth process but do not seem to be the major drivers of growth in this period.

 
  © International Development
Economics Associates 2010
 

Best viewed on Internet Explorer 6 & Netscape Navigator 6 and above