In this updated 2nd edition, Nabudere analyses the 2007–08 crash with a damning critique of a defunct system that bails out those responsible while the rest of humanity – especially the majority in the Third World – suffers its devastating consequences.

Over a billion people still live in abject poverty. International aid, and its organs such as the World Bank, can claim only limited success. Indeed, in some parts of the world, especially Africa, they must acknowledge failure. William Ryrie analyses the record of international aid with ruthless honesty, while sympathising with its objectives. Aid has often had perverse and harmful effects. Probably its most basic failure has been to undermine the working of the market economy, which offers the best hope of rapid growth and declining poverty. Ryrie argues that a new intellectual basis for aid must urgently be found and the development task redefined, concluding this stimulating book with some novel and provocative proposals.

WINNER OF THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR A NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS' TOP BOOK "An intelligent explanation of the mechanisms that produced the crisis and the response to it...One of the great strengths of Tooze's book is to demonstrate the deeply intertwined nature of the European and American financial systems."--The New York Times Book Review From the prizewinning economic historian and author of Shutdown and The Deluge, an eye-opening reinterpretation of the 2008 economic crisis (and its ten-year aftermath) as a global event that directly led to the shockwaves being felt around the world today. We live in a world where dramatic shifts in the domestic and global economy command the headlines, from rollbacks in US banking regulations to tariffs that may ignite international trade wars. But current events have deep roots, and the key to navigating today’s roiling policies lies in the events that started it all—the 2008 economic crisis and its aftermath. Despite initial attempts to downplay the crisis as a local incident, what happened on Wall Street beginning in 2008 was, in fact, a dramatic caesura of global significance that spiraled around the world, from the financial markets of the UK and Europe to the factories and dockyards of Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, forcing a rearrangement of global governance. With a historian’s eye for detail, connection, and consequence, Adam Tooze brings the story right up to today’s negotiations, actions, and threats—a much-needed perspective on a global catastrophe and its long-term consequences.

"'History has a way of repeating itself in financial matters because of a kind of sophisticated stupidity,' John Kenneth Galbraith once wrote. In a powerful demonstration of how we can learn from history, Professor Buckley analyses in depth the most devastating financial crises of the last quarter-century. He identifies the factors that can coalesce to trigger a financial crash. He then offers well-thought through legal measures to regulate these factors so as to prevent or minimise crises and to better protect those most vulnerable to international financial volatility: the poor in poor countries. In the course of the discussion he covers such topics as: the roles of the Bretton Woods institutions; global capital flows; debtor nation policies; the effects of the Brady restructurings of the 80s and 90s; the benefits of fixed versus floating exchange rates; the social costs of IMF policies; recent debt relief initiatives; a currency transactions tax; debt-for-development exchanges; the need for a global sovereign bankruptcy regime; and 'original sin', the national balance sheet problem. Professor Buckley's far-reaching recommendations include the details of much-needed tax, regulatory, banking, and bankruptcy regulation at a global level. As a general introduction to the international financial system and its regulation; as a powerful critique of the current system's imperfections; and most of all as an insightful work that identifies the principal lessons to be drawn from the past quarter century of international financial history, International Financial System: Policy and Regulation shows how to reconceive a system that has repeatedly sacrificed the lives of thousands and the futures of millions."--Cover.

The global economy has experienced four waves of rapid debt accumulation over the past 50 years. The first three debt waves ended with financial crises in many emerging market and developing economies. During the current wave, which started in 2010, the increase in debt in these economies has already been larger, faster, and broader-based than in the previous three waves. Current low interest rates mitigate some of the risks associated with high debt. However, emerging market and developing economies are also confronted by weak growth prospects, mounting vulnerabilities, and elevated global risks. A menu of policy options is available to reduce the likelihood that the current debt wave will end in crisis and, if crises do take place, will alleviate their impact.

This paper reviews the literature on financial crises focusing on three specific aspects. First, what are the main factors explaining financial crises? Since many theories on the sources of financial crises highlight the importance of sharp fluctuations in asset and credit markets, the paper briefly reviews theoretical and empirical studies on developments in these markets around financial crises. Second, what are the major types of financial crises? The paper focuses on the main theoretical and empirical explanations of four types of financial crises—currency crises, sudden stops, debt crises, and banking crises—and presents a survey of the literature that attempts to identify these episodes. Third, what are the real and financial sector implications of crises? The paper briefly reviews the short- and medium-run implications of crises for the real economy and financial sector. It concludes with a summary of the main lessons from the literature and future research directions.

The ongoing global financial crisis is rooted in a combination of factors common to previous financial crises and some new factors. The crisis has brought to light a number of deficiencies in financial regulation and architecture, particularly in the treatment of systemically important financial institutions, the assessments of systemic risks and vulnerabilities, and the resolution of financial institutions. The global nature of the financial crisis has made clear that financially integrated markets, while offering many benefits, can also pose significant risks, with large real economic consequences. Deep reforms are therefore needed to the international financial architecture to safeguard the stability of an increasingly financially integrated world.

This pamphlet is adapted from Chapter 1 of Silent Revolution: The International Monetary Fund, 1979-89, by the same author. That book is full of history of the evolution of the Fund during 11 years in which the institution truly came of age as a participant in the international financial system.