Today's global financial and economic crisis may not have been foreseen by financiers and economists, but others who watched how markets were developing were more than worried. If those worries are to be allayed, the new financial architecture that many are calling for, and which, it is now apparent, is urgently necessary, must be supported by an ethical framework.
TUBINGEN – Many say that the world financial crisis could not have been foreseen. Perhaps not by financiers and economists, but others who were watching how markets were developing – often with dismay – were more than worried.
As early as 1997, I warned about a repeat of the collapsed economic order of 1929-1933 in my book A Global Ethic for Global Politics and Global Economics : “The slightest remark, for example by the President of the American Federal Bank, Alan Greenspan, at the beginning of December 1996, that an “irrational exuberance” had led to an overvaluation of the financial markets was enough to drive the nervous investors on the high-flying stock markets of Asia, Europe and America into a spin, and panic selling. This also shows that crises in globalization do not a priori balance out, but perhaps get progressively worse.”
Back then, I was already venturing what is, for economists, a heretical presumption: that chaos theory should be applied to the economy; that devastating effects can follow from the smallest causes. One could by no means rule out “a return of the world economic crisis and the collapse of the world economic order of 1929-1933.”
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Despite the dire predictions that have accompanied the decline of global governance, less international cooperation does not necessarily mean disaster. In fact, national governments can prioritize domestic prosperity and social cohesion over multilateralism without harming the global economy.
explains how countries can help the global economy by pursuing their own economic-policy agendas.
Although Russia's war in Ukraine has galvanized Polish society and elevated the country's status internationally, it is also obscuring some deeply troubling domestic political developments. Whether liberal democracy will prevail over reactionary authoritarianism in Poland is now an open question.
about recent domestic and geopolitical developments that will shape the country's future.
TUBINGEN – Many say that the world financial crisis could not have been foreseen. Perhaps not by financiers and economists, but others who were watching how markets were developing – often with dismay – were more than worried.
As early as 1997, I warned about a repeat of the collapsed economic order of 1929-1933 in my book A Global Ethic for Global Politics and Global Economics : “The slightest remark, for example by the President of the American Federal Bank, Alan Greenspan, at the beginning of December 1996, that an “irrational exuberance” had led to an overvaluation of the financial markets was enough to drive the nervous investors on the high-flying stock markets of Asia, Europe and America into a spin, and panic selling. This also shows that crises in globalization do not a priori balance out, but perhaps get progressively worse.”
Back then, I was already venturing what is, for economists, a heretical presumption: that chaos theory should be applied to the economy; that devastating effects can follow from the smallest causes. One could by no means rule out “a return of the world economic crisis and the collapse of the world economic order of 1929-1933.”
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