IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devchg/v42y2011i1p70-86.html

Forum 2011

Author

Listed:
  • Ashwani Saith

Abstract

type="main" xml:lang="en"> Globalization has been accompanied by worsening inequality within core countries of global accumulation processes, as exemplified by China and the USA, where income and wealth inequalities have regained the stratospheric heights of the 1920s. In parallel, there are significantly diverging life chances for the rich and the poor. Extreme inequalities are deemed intrinsically toxic due to their potential for the subversion of regulatory and accountability institutions, the corrosion of societal norms, and the quality of democracy. The present conjuncture of crises provides credible evidence that inequality, especially extreme inequality, is not just a contextual feature or a downstream outcome issue, but a crucial upstream, causal factor in the pathology of the financial meltdown. This article introduces contributions elaborating causal pathologies connecting inequality, imbalances and instability, emphasizing the centrality of global interdependence. Beyond surviving the crisis through assorted fiscal stimuli packages of emergency resuscitation and life support, there are deeper structural policy issues to consider. The crisis briefly opened up democratic space for short-term protective, and long-term corrective interventions. However, this space was equally quickly shut down again, as the political and financial establishment resisted yielding permanent ground: witness the return to fiscal conservatism, the revival of the culture of bankers’ bonuses, and persisting international divisions over coordinated global action. There is an imperative to regulate rampant and dysfunctional financialization; to cooperate internationally for sustainable balanced economic growth; for an alternative politics to pull back from an inexorable slide into plutocracy, to let the people back in. Otherwise we risk lurching from one crisis episode to another, from tragedy to farce, and back again.

Suggested Citation

  • Ashwani Saith, 2011. "Forum 2011," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 42(1), pages 70-86, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:42:y:2011:i:1:p:70-86
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2011.01705.x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edward N. Wolff, 2007. "Recent Trends in Household Wealth in the United States: Rising Debt and the Middle-Class Squeeze," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_502, Levy Economics Institute.
    2. Cripps, Francis & Izurieta, Alex & Singh, Ajit, 2011. "Global imbalances, under-consumption and overborrowing: the state of the world economy & future policies," MPRA Paper 39049, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Yeva Nersisyan & L. Randall Wray, 2010. "The global financial crisis and the shift to shadow banking," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 7(2), pages 377-400.
    4. Davies, James B. & Sandstrom, Susanna & Shorrocks, Anthony & Wolff, Edward N., 2006. "The World Distribution of Household Wealth," Conference papers 331490, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    5. Alex Izurieta & Ajit Singh, 2010. "Does Fast Growth in India and China Help or Harm US Workers?," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 115-141.
    6. Michael Mah-Hui Lim, 2008. "Old Wine in a New Bottle: Subprime Mortgage Crisis—Causes and Consequences," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_532, Levy Economics Institute.
    7. Maurice Obstfeld & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2009. "Global imbalances and the financial crisis: products of common causes," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, pages 131-172.
    8. Terry McKinley & Alex Izurieta, 2007. "The Gross Inequities of Global Imbalances," One Pager 30, International Policy Centre.
    9. Cripps, F. & Izurieta, A. & Singh, A., 2011. "Global Imbalances, Under-Consumption and Over-Borrowing: The State of the World Economy and Future Policies," Working Papers wp419, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    10. L. Randall Wray, 2009. "Money Manager Capitalism and the Global Financial Crisis," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_578, Levy Economics Institute.
    11. Edward N. Wolff, 2010. "Recent Trends in Household Wealth in the United States-- Rising Debt and the Middle-Class Squeeze--An Update to 2007," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_589, Levy Economics Institute.
    12. Rogoff, Kenneth & Obstfeld, Maurice, 2009. "Global Imbalances and the Financial Crisis: Products of Common Causes," CEPR Discussion Papers 7606, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Engelbert Stockhammer, 2010. "Financialization and the Global Economy," Working Papers wp240, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Douglas Sutherland & Peter Hoeller & Balázs Égert & Oliver Röhn, 2010. "Counter-cyclical Economic Policy," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 760, OECD Publishing.
    2. Mika Nieminen, 2017. "Patterns of international capital flows and their implications for developing countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-171, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Ahmed, M. Iqbal & Cassou, Steven P., 2021. "Asymmetries in the effects of unemployment expectation shocks as monetary policy shifts with economic conditions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    4. Pilar Piqué, 2016. "La jerarquía de monedas nacionales y los problemas financieros actuales," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 18(34), pages 69-85, January-J.
    5. Till Treeck, 2014. "Did Inequality Cause The U.S. Financial Crisis?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 421-448, July.
    6. Thomas Fischer, 2012. "Inequality and Financial Markets - A Simulation Approach in a Heterogeneous Agent Model," Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, in: Andrea Teglio & Simone Alfarano & Eva Camacho-Cuena & Miguel Ginés-Vilar (ed.), Managing Market Complexity, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 79-90, Springer.
    7. Hartwig, Benny & Meinerding, Christoph & Schüler, Yves S., 2021. "Identifying indicators of systemic risk," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    8. Hatice Gaye GENCER & Mehmet Yasin HURATA, 2017. "Risk Transmission and Contagion in the Equity Markets: International Evidence from the Global Financial Crisis," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(3), pages 110-129, September.
    9. Zsofia Barany & Nicolas Coeurdacier & Stéphane Guibaud, 2015. "Fertility, Longevity and International Capital Flows," Working Papers hal-01164462, HAL.
    10. Maria V. Sokolova, 2016. "Trade Re(Im)Balanced: The Role of Regional Trade Agreements," IHEID Working Papers 06-2016, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    11. Sokolova, Maria V., 2016. "Exchange Rates, International Trade and Growth: Re-Evaluation of Undervaluation," Conference papers 332790, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    12. Dong, Wei, 2012. "The role of expenditure switching in the global imbalance adjustment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 237-251.
    13. Can Xu & Jan P. A. M. Jacobs & Jakob de Haan, 2023. "Does Household Borrowing Reduce the Trade Balance? Evidence from Developing and Developed Countries," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 759-787, September.
    14. Joscha Beckmann & Robert Czudaj, 2017. "Effective Exchange Rates, Current Accounts and Global Imbalances," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 500-533, August.
    15. Jean-Paul Pollin, 2010. "Commentaire : Articuler les explications pour comprendre la bulle immobilière," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 438(1), pages 173-179.
    16. Adu, Raymond & Litsios, Ioannis & Baimbridge, Mark, 2019. "Real exchange rate and asymmetric shocks in the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ)," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 232-249.
    17. Petra Duenhaupt, 2011. "The Impact of Financialization on Income Distribution in the USA and Germany: A Proposal for a New Adjusted Wage Share," IMK Working Paper 7-2011, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    18. Christophe André, 2016. "Household debt in OECD countries: stylised facts and policy issues," Chapters from NBP Conference Publications, in: Hanna Augustyniak & Jacek Łaszek & Krzysztof Olszewski & Joanna Waszczuk (ed.), Papers presented during the Narodowy Bank Polski Workshop: Recent trends in the real estate market and its analysis - 2015 edition, chapter 2, pages v1, 33-85, Narodowy Bank Polski.
    19. Catte, Pietro & Cova, Pietro & Pagano, Patrizio & Visco, Ignazio, 2011. "The role of macroeconomic policies in the global crisis," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 787-803.
    20. Andrea Gazzani, 2020. "News and noise bubbles in the housing market," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 36, pages 46-72, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:42:y:2011:i:1:p:70-86. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0012-155X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.