Part IV: The Power of Global Finance
What Brexit and Trump’s victory have in common
Trump rides to victory on a tide of popular anger
Many facile comparisons have been made between Brexit and the election of Donald Trump today. They have an important element in common. But the commentators have missed it. It is said that both represent a backlash against globalisation. Others say it is a revolt of the uneducated, the marginalised, the people who have been left…
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Globalisation – a poisoned chalice
Globalisation will triumph but bring many new problems with it
Against such a backdrop, financial globalisation appears to be a weak force. Yet it exists. It exists in many senses. Nations may raise capital controls – though surprisingly few actually have done. But there are ways round them. People’s desire to connect to the major centres of finance where the opportunities and investment chances…
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Under present arrangements, finance too often acts as a malevolent force, rewarding private sectional interests at the expense of the public interest. This is because the globalisation of markets has run ahead of our power to control them. Properly harnessed, global finance could be, again, an enormously powerful force for good. Designing such a harness…
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We need two, inter-related, big reforms – first to the official international monetary system and secondly to banking/financial markets. The international monetary system The first class of reforms needs to start at the beginning – with new reflection on the true nature of money. This is the most fundamental, and yet unavoidable, question raised by…
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The world needs a new currency
RP's Diary
The following article by Robert Pringle was published by The Christian Science Monitor on July 27. The financial crisis, the 2008/09 recession, the banking scandals that have followed, and today’s limping recovery are all linked. The common factor is the absence of a real international monetary and banking order. Only when such an order is restored will…
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Can London lead a financial rebirth?
RP’s Diary
The reputation of the City of London has been badly damaged, however the LIBOR affair turns out. People will inevitably ask, who knows what other kinds of criminal or near-criminal activity have been taking place? Would the LIBOR attempted price fixing have come to light without those incriminating emails? What other forms of collusion are…
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Is global financial reform possible?
RP’s Diary
Paul Volcker, one of the few universally-esteemed central bankers of the 20th century, has summed up in a few words the messages of The Money Trap. Maybe I should have saved myself the trouble of writing the 340 page book. At least, that was my immediate thought on reading his article. A colleague called to…
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