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Originally released by Basil Blackwell in 1986, and then re-released by Manchester University Press in 1998, Casino capitalism is a cutting-edge discussion of international financial markets, the way they behave and the power they wield. It examines money's power for good as well as its terrible disruptive, destructive power for evil. Money is seen as being far too important to leave to bankers and economists to do with as they think best. The raison d'être of Casino Capitalism is to expose the development of a financial system that has increasingly escaped the calming influences of democratic control.
This new edition includes a powerful new introduction provided by Matthew Watson that puts the book it in its proper historical context, as well as identifying its relevance for the modern world. It will have a wide reaching audience, appealing both to academics and students of economics and globalization as well as the general reader with interests in capitalism and economic history.
restrictions and realities of globalisation, including the extensive growth and technological advances that have driven the advance of international financial markets. It has meant that New Labour has moved the Party further to the right than had even been envisaged by the neo-revisionists of the 1970s. As Toynbee and Walker stated, New Labour won a landslide election victory in 1997 primarily because it had finally established Labour (free from the influence of the Left) as ‘a capitalist party fit for election in a capitalist democracy’.12 New Labour confirmed the arrival
its support as a result of the crisis, but the rapidity with which the government lost its credibility was particularly remarkable. During this period, the PSOE government provided a case study of the degree to which, currently, democratically elected governments have become subservient to the demands of the international financial markets. Under pressures exerted by the EU, the IMF and the bond markets, the PSOE government possessed little margin for manoeuvre when it agreed to intensify its austerity programme in May 2010. The indecently swift reform of the
taxation and expenditure. In this context the last few years have witnessed growing instability in global financial markets, creating a vicious circle. Given the increased weight and autonomy of private international financial markets, future decisions on monetary as well as fiscal policy are likely to lie beyond the effective scope of national democratic control. At the same time, international financial markets possess few autonomous enforcement mechanisms with which to punish or deter free-riders. The liberalization of market rules (often misleadingly called
Chapter 8 Managing mad money – national systems There are two reasons for regulating the behaviour of international financial dealers and the conduct of international financial markets. One is to moderate and restrain greed. The other is to moderate and restrain fear. Greed and fear are the two human emotions most evident in the day-to-day behaviour of the international financial system today. Mad money is the result. Either dealers are drawn by greed to take too big risks with their own or, more often, with other people’s money; or they are overcome by fear
economy and provided a ‘networking’ route into international financial markets for financial service providers. Crucially, IFLS does not only represent ‘British’ firms, but rather also international and internationalised firms based in London. The empirical concerns of this case study conform broadly to those outlined in the Introduction. More specifically, they are similar to those of the previous chapter: whether globalisation was treated as exclusively economic – and if so, precisely what economic activities define the process – and whether it was deemed inherently
French Socialists’ political economy between 1997 and 2002 (and New Labour’s since 1997), was able to reconcile both the securing of credibility with international financial market actors and substantial fiscal policy space within which to pursue domestic economic policies of a broadly Keynesian character. Within a framework of a commitment to macroeconomic stability, there remains room for manoeuvre over the degree of ‘orthodoxy’, as well as a whole range of other economic policy tools which may be exploited to prioritise ‘social democratic’ goals. A commitment to
GDP, but 15.4 per cent. The result of this announcement was a loss of confidence within the Eurozone, a downgrading of credit ratings for countries deemed to be risky and an increase in the cost of government bonds on the international financial market. Greece was the first country to turn to the IMF for a bailout in May 2010, followed by Ireland (albeit for different reasons) in November 2010 and in May 2010, Portugal. In May 2013 Cyprus received its first IMF bailout (although it was given bilateral assistance in December 2011) and speculation also mounted that
proceed to discuss another international financial market, namely the eurosecurities market. Self-assessment questions Assess the various theories of exchange rate determination. What is ‘purchasing power parity’? Explain what is meant by ‘interest rate
-making’. Both add up to turning the clock back to a time of strict exchange controls, state intervention in investment and production, and the closing – in effect – of international financial markets and the channels that link them together. Now, it may come to that – but only after an experience of such economic pain that people would accept drastic remedies. History does suggest that human beings find it easier to recreate the past – or to try to – than they do to imagine the future. When the Soviet Union was attacked by Hitler in 1941, Stalin found that an appeal to old