Evolving international monetary and financial architecture and the development challenge

Theories of justice rely on a variety of criteria to determine what social arrangements should be considered just. For most theories, the distribution of financial resources matters. However, they take the existence of money as a given and tend to ignore the way in which the creation of money impacts distributive justice. Those with access to collateral are favoured in the creation of credit or debt, which represents the main form of money today. Appealing to the idea that access to credit confers freedom, and that inequalities in this freedom are morally arbitrary, this article shows how the advantage to those with collateral plays out in different ways in today’s economy. The article identifies several forms of bias inherent in money creation, and its subsequent destruction: loans from commercial banks to individuals and corporations, interbank lending, lending from central banks to commercial banks, and selective bail-outs by central banks. These are not mere inequalities: they are unjust since alternative designs of the financial architecture exist that would significantly reduce them. The paper focuses on one possible reform with the potential to address several of the types of bias identified, namely the separation of money creation from private bank credit.

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Impact of the legal and institutional framework on the financial architecture of new economy firms in developing countries

Information Economics and Policy ◽

10.1016/j.infoecopol.2004.06.003 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 247-269

Author(s):

Danny Cassimon ◽

Peter-Jan Engelen

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

New Economy ◽

Institutional Framework ◽

Financial Architecture

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Global Finance after the Crisis: Reform Imperatives and Vested Interests

Global Economy Journal ◽

10.2202/1524-5861.1729 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 1850228

Author(s):

Wim Naude

Keyword(s):

Financial Crisis ◽

Global Financial Crisis ◽

Global Level ◽

Reform Initiatives ◽

Global Finance ◽

Financial Architecture ◽

Vested Interests ◽

Recent Reform ◽

The Global Financial Crisis ◽

Made In

The global financial crisis of 2008-09 has stimulated a number of re-assessments of global development. But after two years, not much progress has been made in dealing with the deep causes of the crisis. While it is better understood now why the crisis occurred, more progress is needed in terms of financial reform on the global level in order to prevent future financial crises. A remaining challenge is to strengthen the global financial architecture (GFA). This paper focuses on the GFA and its relationship to the global financial crisis. Recent reform initiatives are discussed. Strong resistance against re-regulation of the financial sector is noted, reflecting the general opposition of vested interests to GFA reform.

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