Global imbalances, empowered finance, and neoclassical mechanism designs: consequences for global-south development strategy

Abstract

The global economy is at a flex-point that would have been unimaginable just a decade ago. The economies of the global-North are, almost without exception, floundering in recessionary conditions without the political will to create the sort of stimulus that would lift them from stagnation. The most likely outcome is that stagnation of the sort that has trapped Japan since the 1990s will spread across Europe and the United States, with as-yet unimaginable consequences for the character of political leadership in the decade to come. Yet at the same time, economies in the global South are poised for success. Indeed, the BRIC nations – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – have all achieved strong rates of economic growth in the mid-2000s, and all these nations‟ growth has thus far only been moderated affected by the slowdown in the global North.