Bad Policies or Systemic Dysfunction? The Perils of Financial Globalization: A South View (original) (raw)
2003, Social Science Research Network
The literature on globalizationon has rapidly mushroomed over the past 10 years. Public fora concerned with the issue span the whole spectrum between the World Economic Forum in Davos and the World Social Forum in Porto Allegro. Anti-globalization movements are to be found almost everywhere around the globe-both North and South. 1 This indicates clearly that globalization has come to be a very controversial categorywith many who are solidly for it, and those who strongly, sometimes even violently, oppose it. We are not concerned here with public (popular) action related to globalization. Our interest is rather in the globalization discourse: making a contribution to the debate by emphasizing some aspects of the view of the South on the issue-with special emphasis on financial globalization and its implications for financial crises. We shall argue that the increased use of derivatives, particularly through over the counter trading and offshore financial centres by large and complex financial institutions over the last two decades, represents a radical change in the international financial system. Such a systemic change may increase the likelihood of the outbreak of financial crises. Financial crises may not only result from bad policies by afflicted countries, but may also be the product of systemic dysfunction. In this context, the call for the the outright and
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.