Old Utopias, New Tax Havens

2019 ◽  
pp. 85-98
Author(s):  
Stefan Eich
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Tax Havens ◽  
Bretton Woods ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Form ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis

Cryptocurrencies are frequently framed as future-oriented, technological innovations that decentralize money, thereby liberating it from centralized governance and the political tentacles of the state. This is misleading on several counts. First, electronic currencies cannot leave the politics of money behind even where they aim to disavow it. Instead, we can understand their impact as a political attempt to depoliticize money. Second, the dramatic price swings of cryptocurrencies challenge their self-fashioning as a new form of money and reveal them instead as speculative assets and securities in need of regulation. While the preferential tax and regulatory treatment of cryptocurrencies hinges on their nominal currency status, it is ironically precisely their success as speculative assets that has undermined these claims. Finally, far from heralding a radical break with the past, electronic currencies serve as a reminder of the unresolved global politics of money since the 1970s. To support these three interrelated theses this chapter places the rise of cryptocurrencies in the historical context of the international politics of money between the end of the Bretton Woods system and the response to the 2008 Financial Crisis.

scholarly journals Reimagining unfinished architectures: ruin perspectives between art and heritage

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-244
Author(s):  
Pablo Arboleda
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Architectural Style ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
The Past ◽  
Single Solution ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis

For the past five decades, hundreds of unfinished public works have been erected in Italy as the result of inconsistent planning and the presence of corruption and organised crime. A third of these constructions are located in Sicily alone, and so, in 2007, a group of artists labelled this phenomenon an architectural style: ‘ Incompiuto Siciliano’. Through this creative approach, the artists’ objective is to put incompletion back on the agenda by viewing it from a heritage perspective. This article reviews the different approaches that the artists have envisaged to handle unfinished public works; whether to finish them, demolish them, leave them as they are or opt for an ‘active’ arrested decay. The critical implications of these strategies are analysed in order to, ultimately, conclude that incompletion is such a vast and complex issue that it will surely have more than one single solution; but rather a combination of these four. This is important because it opens up a debate on the broad spectrum of possibilities to tackle incompletion – establishing this as one of the key contemporary urban themes not only in Italy but also in those countries affected by unfinished geographies after the 2008 financial crisis.

Solidarity as Social Reconstruction

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 708-728
Author(s):  
Olivier Voirol
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Social Reconstruction ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Individual Preferences ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Reason ◽  
Market Approach ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis

Abstract The neoliberal agenda is based on the rejection of social objectivism and social reason, in favor of individual preferences and subjective values. Reforms carried out under this agenda destroy institutions and practices of solidarity. While the 2008 financial crisis has confronted neoliberalism with a legitimation crisis, an alternative agenda has yet to emerge. In the past decades, this “void” gave birth to the implementation of “regressive communities”. Instead of challenging the neoliberal agenda these communities function as mere authoritarian extensions. By rejecting social issues and defending cultural values they display contempt for social objectivity and reason. A path beyond the neoliberal “all market” approach as well as the subsequent triggerering of “regressive communities” is nowadays sought by social reconstruction through solidarity.

The Neodevelopmentalist Front and Mercosur under the PT Governments: The Rise and Fall of Multidimensional Regionalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 0094582X2110293
Author(s):  
Tatiana Berringer
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Integration Mechanisms ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

An analysis of the relationship between classes and class fractions and Mercosur under the PT (Workers’ Party) governments suggests that the transition from the open regionalism of the 1990s to the multidimensional regionalism of the 2000s and the crisis of the latter were linked to the overlap between the regional integration mechanisms Unasur and Mercosur and the social base of the neodevelopmentalist front. Multidimensional regionalism went into crisis after 2012, when the country began to suffer the impact of the 2008 financial crisis and changes in international politics and when the political process that culminated in the 2016 coup began. Uma análise da relação entre as classes e frações de classe e o Mercosul dos governos PT sugere que a transição do regionalismo aberto dos anos 1990 para o regionalismo multidimensional dos anos 2000 e a crise deste últimoestão ligados à imbricação entre os processos de integração regional, Unasur e Mercosur, e a base social da frente neodesenvolvimentista. O regionalismo multidimensional entrou em crise a partir de 2012 quando o país começou a sofrer mais o impacto da crise financeira de 2008 e das transformações na política internacional e iniciou-se o processo político que culminou no golpe de 2016.

scholarly journals The Idea of Austerity in British Politics, 2003–2013

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Anstead
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Political Research ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Political Right

Employing a dataset of 1843 think tank publications containing 37 million words, computer-assisted text analysis was used to examine the idea of austerity in British politics between 2003 and 2013. Theoretically, the article builds on the ideational turn in political research. However, in contrast to much ideational work which argues that ideas are important at times of crisis because they can address uncertainty, this article argues that moments of crisis can lead to the reformulation of ideas. Empirically, this article demonstrates the transformation of the idea of austerity. Prior to the 2008 financial crisis, austerity was largely understood either in historical terms or as a practice applied in other countries. In the aftermath of the crisis, both the political right and left attempted to co-opt the idea of austerity for their own ends, combining it with various other ideational strands on which they have historically drawn.

scholarly journals Intergenerational Homeownership and Mortgage Distress

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Nicholas Fritsch ◽  
Rawley Z. Heimer
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial Attitudes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis

Rates of US homeownership have declined in the past two decades, and the decline has been especially pronounced for young adults. Motivated by recent research that explores the ways in which personal experiences can affect financial attitudes and beliefs, we explore whether the negative homeownership experiences of parents during the 2008 financial crisis could have caused their children to view homeownership less favorably. We find that parental mortgage distress negatively correlates with the probability that a child will purchase a home, and we explore various channels through which this link may occur.

scholarly journals Exploring Systemic Risk of Chinese SIFIs using a Simplified SRISK Model

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 469
Author(s):  
Muhammad Jamal Haider ◽  
Adrian Hemmes ◽  
Gao Changchun ◽  
Tayyaba Akram
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Systemic Risk ◽  
Risk Index ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Risk Exposure ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Increasing Trend ◽  
Economic Slowdown ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis

The exposure of banks to systemic risk has been rising in an ever more financialized and interconnected economy. In China, economic slowdown and more non-performing loans mean that the financial system has operate in an increasingly stressed environment, strengthening the vulnerability of future systemic shortfall. In this study, systemic risk in Chinese systematically important financial institutions (SIFIs) is analyzed using a simplified SRISK model. The results are set into historical context, its characteristics are illustrated, and compared to an existing risk index. With that the study contributes to the existing literature by exploring application the SRISK model from a regulatory framework and illustrating some of its implications on Chinese SIFIs. The key findings include (1) an increasing trend of systemic risk exposure and (2) evidence for a divergence between volatility and systemic risk since the 2008 financial crisis.

Robert Skidelsky Money and Government: The Past and Future of Economics

2020 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 257-261
Author(s):  
Hugh Rockoff
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
London School ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
London School Of Economics

Robert Skidelsky, a historian whose fame for his monumental biography of John Maynard Keynes is well deserved, here provides us with a brilliant, well-informed history of macroeconomics stretching from the “British recoinage debates” of the 1690s to today. Money and Government was prompted by the 2008 financial crisis. It is an attempt, Skidelsky tells us, to answer the question that Queen Elizabeth II posed to a group of economists at the London School of Economics in October 2008: “Why did no one see it coming?” Not surprisingly, to skip to the bottom line, Skidelsky believes that macroeconomics reached its apogee with Keynes and that it has been more or less downhill from there. The 2008 financial crisis could have been predicted, and ameliorated after it occurred if not prevented, if macroeconomists had remained loyal to Keynes.

“Trump”—What Does the Name Signify? or, Protofascism and the Alt-Right

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Flisfeder
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Politics And Culture ◽  
The Media ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis

This article examines the rise of the alt-right and Donald Trump’s successful campaign for president of the United States in the context of three overlapping contradictions: that of subversion in postmodern culture and politics, that between the democratic and commercial logics of the media, and that of the failure of the Left in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The article looks at the rise of “Trumpism” and the new brand of white nationalist and misogynistic culture of the so-called alt-right in its historical context to show how it is consistent with but also distinguished from previous right-wing ideologies. More generally, the three contradictions presented here are proposed as explanations for understanding the mainstreaming of the alt-right in contemporary politics and culture.

scholarly journals Emptiness and its futures

Focaal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (80) ◽  
pp. 16-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dace Dzenovska
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Eu Accession ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Stable Employment

In the past 25 years, rural Latvia has become notably emptier. This emptying is the result of post-Soviet deindustrialization and large-scale outmigration, enabled by EU accession and exacerbated by the 2008 financial crisis. It is accompanied by lack of political protest, leading many to conclude that migration hinders political mobilization. Such conclusions derive from viewing leaving and staying as actions in relation to the state. Instead, leaving and staying should be viewed in relation to transnational forms of power. The people leaving the deindustrialized Latvian countryside to work in the English countryside are seeking futures past, namely, futures of stable employment and incremental prosperity. Those who stay in the emptying Latvian countryside create the future as a little bit more of the present.

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