18. Global economy

Author(s):  
Peter Gowan ◽  
Doug Stokes

This chapter examines some of the central debates on how we should understand the United States’ efforts to reshape international economic relations since the 1940s. It first considers debates on the sources and mechanisms of American economic strategy before turning to debates about the substance of American efforts to shape the global economy. It approaches the debates about the substance of U.S. foreign economic policy since 1945 by classifying varying perspectives on this question in three alternative images. The first such image is that of America as the promoter of a cooperative, multilateral order in international economics. The second image is that of an American economic nationalism and the third is that of an American empire. The chapter goes on to analyse the global financial crisis and concludes with an overview of some of the main current debates about the strength of American capitalism in the world economy.

2016 ◽  
pp. 26-46
Author(s):  
Marcin Jan Flotyński

The global financial crisis in 2007–2009 began a period of high volatility on the financial markets. Specifically, it caused an increased amplitude of fluctuations of the level of gross domestic products, the level of investment and consumption and exchange rates in particular countries. To address the adverse market circumstances, governments and central banks took actions in order to bolster the weakening global economy. The aim of this article is to present the anti-crisis actions in the United States and selected member states of the European Union, including Poland, and an assessment of their efficiency. The analysis conducted indicates that generally the actions taken in the United States in response to the crisis were faster and more adequate to the existing circumstances than in the European Union.


2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan S. Turner

Whereas happiness ( eudaimonia or human flourishing) was fundamental to the classical thought of the Greeks and Romans, as felicitas and beatitudo were to Christianity and a ‘felicific calculus’ to utilitarian philosophers, since Max Weber’s criticism of happiness as a goal of social policy it has largely disappeared from mainstream sociology. The article contrasts Aristotle’s view of eudaimonia from the Nicomachean Ethics, in which a happy/flourishing polis was a necessary condition for happy/flourishing citizens, with contemporary societies in which, while there is much talk about happiness, it is often understood as an individual experience associated with pleasure (and especially with privatized consumption). Happiness studies indicate that happiness cannot be separated from a successful society. Recent data from the United States show how life satisfaction is declining with economic decay. The World Happiness Report of 2015 also helps us to distinguish between societies that recovered quickly from the global financial crisis and those that did not.


1961 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lincoln Gordon

During the decade of the 1950's, considerable popularity was won for the idea that the restructuring of the world economy into regional blocs would mark a great forward step in international economic relations, and might also help resolve certain major international political problems. As the new decade begins, and as a new Administration takes office in Washington, it is timely to reappraise the validity of this idea. To do so is not to suggest that regionalism is the most important aspect of foreign economic policy for the new decade. There come readily to mind at least five other major topics: aid for economic development; stabilization of international markets for primary products; the policy of advanced industrial countries toward imports of low-wage manufactured goods from developing countries; the treatment of trade and aid activities of the Communist bloc; and the reduction of the balance-of-payments deficit of the United States. With respect to broad structural relationships, however, the future of economic regionalism is evidently a matter of special importance.


Author(s):  
Hisham H. Abdelbaki

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG;">No doubt, the </span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 10pt;">international financial crisis that started in the United States of America will cast its effects on all countries of the world, developed and developing. Yet these effects vary from one country to another for several reasons. The GCC countries would not escape these negative effects of this severe crisis. The negative effects of the crisis on gulf countries come from many aspects: first, decrease in price of oil on whose revenues the development programs in these countries depend; second, decrease in the value of US$ and the subsequent decrease in the assets owned by these countries in US$; third, a case of economic stagnation will prevail in the world with effects starting to appear. </span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG;">It is obvious that this would be reflected on the real sector in the economies causing a series of negative effects through decrease of the world demand for exports of GCC countries of oil, petrochemicals and aluminum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Lastly, increased inflation rates with decreased interest rates will result in a decrease in real interest with an accompanying decrease in incentives for saving and consequently investment and economic development. The main aim of the research is to assess the economic effects of the global financial crisis on GCC countries. The paper results are that the big reserves of foreign currencies achieved by the GCC countries in the past few years have helped increase their ability to bear the effects of the financial effects on one hand and their ability to adopt expansionary policies through pumping liquidity to absorb the regressive effects of the crisis on the other. The paper recommends the necessity of taking precautionary procedures for the effects which will result from the expansionary policies effective in GCC countries. <strong></strong></span></span></p>


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-11
Author(s):  
Patrick Farrell

While the current financial crisis is widely acknowledged to be global, surprisingly little attention has been paid to its effect on one of the largest players in the global economy. China has weathered the crisis extremely well, though its growth has slowed slightly. I will analyze this by looking at China’s purchases of debt, the Chinese holdings of debt in the United States and its growing holdings in Europe, and the policy decisions directing this. This shows an intriguing change in the policy decisions that led to China becoming such a large holder of American debt. China amassed its large holdings of debt from the United States by merit of the strong trade relationship between the two countries, as well as the stability of the U.S. dollar. However, China’s interest in buying up Italian debt and forming stronger bonds with other Eurozone and European countries seems to speak to a different motive. Rather than allowing its reserves of foreign capital to grow over time, as it did with its U.S. debt, China is making a more aggressive move in this case. Thanks to its relative stability during the crisis, I believe this shows us that China is seeking to both ensure the continued security of its economic growth and increase its economic influence, thus using the instability of the global financial crisis to kill two birds with one stone.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
Eddison T. Walters

Based on the findings of the current study, policymakers must take a hard look at the media and themselves, because the world can no longer blame the subprime mortgage industry for causing the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008. The public must demand answers from the media and policymakers explaining how an economic crisis that could have been avoided resulted in the collapse of the global economy. The lack of evidence supporting the theory of a financial bubble and a real estate bubble called for further investigation of factors leading to the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008. Evidence presented from data analysis in Walters (2018) suggested no financial bubble existed in developed or developing countries around the world, preceding the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008. Based on data analysis in Walters (2018) the evidence also suggested, the lasting effect of economic policies in response to the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008 for both developed and developing countries around the world, had no significant impact on the financial sector but pointed to a lack of economic growth. The findings raised significant questions about the existence of a real estate bubble in both developed and developing countries. Evidence from data analysis presented in Walters and Djokic (2019) suggested the existence of a real estate bubble in the United States real estate market preceding the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008 was a false conclusion. Data analysis in Walters (2019) resulted in, 0.989 Adjusted R-square, 194.041 Mean Dependent Variable, 5.908 Square Error of Regression, 488.726 Sum-of- Square Residual, and 0.00000 Probability (F-statistic), for correlation between the independent variable representing advancement in technology, and the dependent variable representing home purchase price in the United States preceding the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008. The findings in Walters (2019) concluded the rapid increase in home purchase price in the United States real estate market, was due to increased demand for homes from the adaptation of advancement in technology in the real estate and mortgage industries. The current study expanded the investigation of the growth in home purchase price to fifteen developed countries around the world, building on the findings of previous research by the current researcher. The researcher in the current study concluded, the existence of significant and near-perfect correlation in many cases, between the dependent variable representing growth in home purchase price, and the independent variable representing advancement in technology. The analysis was based on data analyzed from fifteen developed countries around the world, which was collected between 1990 and 2006. The data analysis included home purchase price data from, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, Netherlands, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, Norway, Spain, and Portugal. Data preceding the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008 were analyzed in the current study. The researcher in the current study concluded the existence of overwhelming evidence suggesting advancement in technology was responsible for the rapid increase in home prices in developed countries around the world preceding the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008. The result of data analysis in the current study provided further confirmation of the accuracy of former Federal Reserve Board Chairmen, Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke 2005 assessment which concluded, the occurrence of a real estate bubble developing was impossible due to the Efficient Market Hypothesis, before reversing course subsequent their assertion in 2005 (Belke &amp; Wiedmann, 2005; Starr,2012). The result of the current study provided additional evidence supporting Eddison Walters Risk Expectation Theory of The Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008. The result from data analysis also confirmed the need for the adaptation of Eddison Walters Modern Economic Analysis Theory. As a result of the findings in the current study, the researcher concluded the development of a real estate bubble is impossible where there exists real estate price transparency, as is the case in most developed and developing countries. The researcher presented Walters Real Estate Bubble Impossibility Price Transparency Theory based on the findings. False information of a real estate bubble and predictions of a real estate crash disseminated through the mainstream media and social media can be a destructive force with a disastrous effect on the economy around the world. The failure by the media to hold themselves and policymakers to a higher standard resulted in the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008. The result of the failure by the media was a worldwide economic crisis and the Great Recession that followed the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008. Lessons learned from the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008 can assist in preventing another economic crisis in the future.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-235
Author(s):  
Sang-Chul Park ◽  

Growth in trade has slowed since the global financial crisis in 2008. It seemed to recover in 2017 but declined again after the Trump administration in the U.S. imposed protectionist measures in 2018 which led to conflicts with its major trading partners, including Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, Korea and the EU. Among these partners, the U.S. negotiated amendments to its FTAs with Canada, Mexico and Korea. It is still negotiating with Japan. However, the U.S. government took a different, hard line approach to China in terms of trade based on setting high tariffs on Chinese imports to which China responded by placing high tariffs on U.S. imports. The trade conflict began with criticisms directed at each other, with the U.S. putting its national interest first and China touting a global system of free trade as a key issue. The trade conflict has negatively impacted not only the U.S. and Chinese economies but also the global economy, given that the two economies together as the G2 account for nearly 40% of global output. Therefore, one of the most important challenges for global economic growth is how the conflict might further affect the global economy. This paper analyzes why the trade conflict emerged and how to resolve it. It also focuses on the economic impacts of the trade conflict on the global economy in general, and the Chinese economy in particular. Further, it analyzes how the Chinese government strategically deals with trade negotiations with the United States.


Author(s):  
Fadwa Errami ◽  
Jamal Abnaha

Islamic finance can no longer be dismissed as a passing fad or as an epiphenomenon of Islamic revivalism. Islamic financial institutions now operate in over 70 countries. Their assets have increased more than fortyfold since 1982 to exceed $200 billion. In 1996 and 1997, they have grown at respective annual rates of 24 and 26 per cent.1 By certain (probably overly optimistic) estimates, up to half of the savings of the Islamic world may in the near future end up being managed by Islamic financial institutions. The first Islamic banks were created in the 1970s, at the time when the aggiornamento of Islamic doctrine on banking matters was taking shape. At the time, Islamic banks were typically commercial banks operating on an interest-free basis. Today, as a consequence of broad changes in the political–economic environment, a new generation of Islamic financial institutions, more diverse and innovative, is emerging as the doctrine is undergoing a new aggiornamento. Perhaps the most important development has been the growing integration of Islamic finance into the global economy. There is now a Dow Jones Islamic Market Index, which tracks 600 companies (from inside and outside the Muslim world) whose products and services do not violate Islamic law. Foreign institutions such as Citibank have established Islamic banking subsidiaries, and many conventional banks – in the Muslim world but also in the United States and Europe – are now offering ‘Islamic products’ that are sometimes aimed at non-Muslims.


2021 ◽  
pp. 171-192
Author(s):  
Peter Martin

Within hours of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, China’s diplomats moved to improve ties with the United States. Spotting an opportunity to improve their country’s international image and influence as the United States became distracted by the Middle East, Beijing established important bilateral dialogues with countries around the world and invested in its soft power. China’s previous efforts to woo its neighbors after Tiananmen and especially after the 1996 Taiwan Straits also paid off. The period culminated with China hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics—the most significant moment of international validation for the regime since its founding. Beijing’s improved reputation was damaged, however, when it began to act assertively in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis.


Policy Papers ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 (58) ◽  
Author(s):  

Five years after the global financial crisis, the severe tensions and risks rooted last year in some of the “Systemic five” (S5)—China, euro area, Japan, United Kingdom, United States––have abated but all five are still operating below potential, i.e., they are not contributing to global activity as much as they might: if they could somehow close their output gaps, global output would be closer to potential by 3 percentage points. Meanwhile, many parts of the rest of the world have been at or near potential. Most recently though, there have been signs of accelerated recovery in the United States and slowdown in emerging markets. This continued divergence in cyclical positions poses a global challenge, namely to find policies that help the S5 close their output gap without over-stimulating or over-tightening, through spillovers, economies that do not need it.


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