L'ombre de la crise[The shadow of the global crisis]

This book aims to study the consequences of the subprime crisis for New Caledonia, a French overseas Pacific territory. The situation of New-Caledonia is specific in many ways, since this territory is undergoing an institutional process of emancipation from France. On the first hand, New Caledonia is protected from the consequences of the crisis thanks to the financial transfers from France which slow down the external constraint. But, on the other hand, New Caledonia is also weakened by many factors: • Its main resources, nickel exportations, have experienced a sharp price fall due to the crisis. • New-Caledonia's indirect taxation highligts under-development (New-Caledonia has not implemented a value-added tax yet). Consequently, tariffs are a major tool to collect tax revenue thus making New-Caledonia a protectionist country with small markets and high prices. • The social inequalities are a serious problem. Theses weaknesses make unlikely for New Caledonia not to suffer from the global crisis. In the first part of the book, the formation and spreading of the subprime crisis are presented with a pedagogical concern. The second part presents the consequences of the crisis for the New Caledonia (and more generally for a small island country), especially from the financial point of view, but also considering the risks induced by a fall of the purchasing power and the rise of social inequalities. The book concludes with the possibility and opportunity of a fiscal policy in the specific context of a small island territory.