Global Finance at Risk

This volume articulates a state of shock and concern with the unbridled pace of speculative finance in the global economy. Challenging the conventional wisdom of market efficiency in the context of today's 'high finance', the volume points at its limits in terms of generating real growth and development. Removed from the real sphere of production and employment, the high-risk high return portfolios of the financiers fail to achieve even the short-term target of an effective buffer against uncertainty. Instead there continues to be a regime of systemic instability in the financial markets, which create shocks and instability to the real sector. The volume offers a critique of the mainstream theory of de-regulated finance while drawing attention to the stagnation and instability at the heart of 'high finance'. The author examines how developing countries are drawn into the web of de-regulated finance of the speculative variety, with consequences which are even more severe as compared to the advanced countries. The book charts out an alternate route of global finance which is capable of generating real demand and activity. The change calls for national and international regulation of global finance in the interest of growth and development.