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The Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 shook the foundations of the global economy and what began as a localised currency crisis soon engulfed the entire Asian region. This book explores what went wrong and how did the Asian economies long considered 'miracles' respond, among other things. The combined effects of growing unemployment, rising inflation, and the absence of a meaningful social safety-net system, pushed large numbers of displaced workers and their families into poverty. Resolving Thailand's notorious non-performing loans problem will depend on the fortunes of the country's real economy, and on the success of Thai Asset Management Corporation (TAMC). Under International Monetary Fund's (IMF) oversight, the Indonesian government has also taken steps to deal with the massive debt problem. After Indonesian Debt Restructuring Agency's (INDRA) failure, the Indonesian government passed the Company Bankruptcy and Debt Restructuring and/or Rehabilitation Act to facilitate reorganization of illiquid, but financially viable companies. Economic reforms in Korea were started by Kim Dae-Jung. the partial convertibility of the Renminbi (RMB), not being heavy burdened with short-term debt liabilities, and rapid foreign trade explains China's remarkable immunity to the "Asian flu". The proposed sovereign debt restructuring mechanism (SDRM) (modeled on corporate bankruptcy law) would allow countries to seek legal protection from creditors that stand in the way of restructuring, and in exchange debtors would have to negotiate with their creditors in good faith.
The financial crisis that erupted on both sides of the Atlantic in 2007–8 initially seemed to offer new political and economic opportunities to the left. As financial institutions collapsed, traditional left-wing issues were apparently back on the agenda. There was the prospect of a return to a more regulated economy, there was widespread state intervention to try to salvage failing banks, and it led to increased scrutiny of the wages and bonuses at the upper end of the scale. However, instead of being a trigger for a resurgence of the left, and despite a surge of support for new parties like SYRIZA and Podemos, in many European countries left-wing parties have suffered electoral defeat. At the same time, the crisis has led to austerity programmes being implemented across Europe, causing further erosion of the welfare state and pushing many into poverty. This timely book examines this crucial period for the left in Europe from a number of perspectives and addresses key questions including: How did political parties from the left respond to the crisis both programmatically and politically? What does the crisis mean for the relationship between the left and European integration? What does the crisis mean for socialism as an economic, political and social project? This collection focuses on a comparison between ten EU member states, and considers a range of different party families of the left, from social democracy through green left to radical left.
2 Mainstreaming co-operatives after the global financial crisis Mainstreaming after the financial crisis Claudia Sanchez Bajo and Bruno Roelants The following discussion is mainly based on our presentation at the Mainstreaming Co-operation conference on 3 July 2012, organised by the Co-operative College UK in Manchester, and on our book Capital and the Debt Trap: Learning from Cooperatives in the Global Crisis.1 This chapter brings in an institutional focus: it discusses the mainstreaming of co-operatives against the background of the global financial crisis
14.1 Introduction The global financial crisis of 2007–8 was a hugely significant event that had profound implications for the regulation of banks as well as for the wider financial system. It also changed the way banks are viewed by the public and may have far-reaching implications for the way banks operate. It is therefore worthy of its own
Latvian cross-ideological consensus on the future of the EU. As a result, three central arguments will be presented in the context of the financial crisis and the left. First, Latvian politics saw a self-induced relabelling of some parties from ethnic issues to social democratic ones. Second, some social democratic politicians and their policies were incorporated into government. Third, economic social democracy became a part of catch-all programmes of Latvian political parties. For the purposes of this chapter, Latvia's left could be grouped as
4 Why the financial crisis has not generated a social democratic alternative in Europe?1 Magnus Ryner The financial crisis presents us with a political paradox. The contagion effect of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis damaged global money and financial markets so severely that the very institutional foundation of the monetary system of the world economy was put in doubt. This was not only another speculative bubble that burst spectacularly (although it was that too). Given the highly complex packaging of financial products through processes of securitisation
6 Targeting skills during the global financial crisis, 2007–13: gendered winners and losers? The hallmark of a quality skilled migration programme is the ability to target those applicants who have skills in need. The imperative to do has become a lot sharper … as Australia got drawn into the whirlpool of the Global Financial Crisis. (Senator Chris Evans, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, 8 February 2010) Introduction With the onset of the global financial crisis, governments in both Australia and Canada undertook major reforms of their points tests. In
When Britain left the European Union in January 2021, it set out on a new journey. Shorn of empire and now the EU too, Britain’s economy is as national as it has ever been. A decade or so since globalisation seemed inevitable, this is a remarkable reversal. How did this happen?
Britain alone argues that this ‘nationalisation’ – aligning the boundaries of the state with the boundaries of the nation – emerged from the 2008 global financial crisis. The book analyses how austerity and scarcity intensified and created new conflicts over who gets what. This extends to struggle over what the British nation is for, who it represents, and who it values.
Drawing on a range of cultural, economic, and political themes – immigration and the hostile environment, nostalgia and Second World War mythology, race and the ‘left behind’, the clap for carers and furloughing, as well as SuperScrimpers and stand-up comedy – the book traces the complex nationalist path Britain took after the crash, demonstrating how we cannot explain nationalism without reference to the economy, and vice versa.
In analysing the thread that ties the fallout of the crash and austerity, through Brexit, and to the shape of lockdown politics, Britain alone provides an incisive and original history of the last decade of Britain and its relationship to the global economy.
’s official response to the cuts and its acute financial crisis, while acknowledging that other international responses, such as bilateral and multilateral discussions between UNRWA and potential donors and various diplomats, have been ongoing throughout this period. Understandably, given UNRWA’s financial circumstances following the announcement of the cuts, the campaign sought to encourage existing and ‘non-traditional’ state and non-state actors to commit funds to ensure that the rights and needs of Palestinian refugees were met. By examining the
, from this period, been feebler than the last ( Brenner, 2006 ). Recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, for example, has been the weakest and most prolonged on record ( Streeck, 2017 ). Reflecting the realities of the downturn, the new freedom to consume has, to a remarkable degree, been unequally distributed ( OECD, 2008 ; Oxfam, 2016 ). Precarity is a by-product of the long downturn. It emerges at that historic moment when the economy becomes a site of permanent emergency ( Streeck, 2011 ). A human surplus coexists with the ‘jobless’ growth