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This section discusses the factors that contribute to the changes experienced by the European banking industry, such as disintermediation, economic instability in international markets, deregulation in industrialized countries, and the creation of the European market in 1992. It considers the gradual integration of Eastern Europe into the economic system of the European Community as another factor of considerable interest. The chapter emphasizes that this book aims to describe the principal forces of change in the European banking industry and analyse the strategies of the more influential enterprises operating in this sector. It points out that the behaviour of 25 commercial banks in five European countries has been studied to achieve this objective and reports that the analysis is based mainly on information obtained from interviews with bank directors and documentation made public by the banks themselves.

The gold standard is conventionally portrayed as synonymous with financial stability, and its downfall, starting in 1929, is implicated in the global financial crisis and the worldwide depression. A central message of this book is that precisely the opposite was true: far from being synonymous with stability, the gold standard itself was the principal threat to financial stability and economic prosperity between the World Wars I and II. To understand why, it is necessary first to appreciate why the interwar gold standard worked so poorly when its prewar predecessor had worked so well, next, to identify the connections between the gold standard and the Great Depression, and finally, to show that the removal of the gold standard in the 1930s established the preconditions for recovery from the Depression. These are the three tasks undertaken in the book (which is arranged chronologically), and they are summarized in the sections of this introductory chapter.

This chapter analyses a number of environmental forces that have had, and will continue to have, a considerable impact upon the European banking industry: deregulation, globalization, worldwide economic instability, the introduction of new information technologies, and the process of financial innovation that derives from the combination of these factors. It points out that it is necessary to understand the legal and economic environment in which the European banking industry operates, as well as how it has been affected, and can be expected to affect, the future structure of the industry. The chapter explains that the changes in the legal and economic environment are certainly not indigenous to Europe. However, in the United States, such changes have also given way to a very profound transformation of the American banking industry.

This brief postscript reviews further developments affecting the three important themes from the earlier chapters. These are the dangers of economic instability borne out of the expansion and complexity of the financial sector; the impact of globalization and especially the rise of China; the growth in inequality; and the threats to egalitarian policies.

This chapter documents the embryonic shift in custodial economic functions from the United States to Asia. Whether measured in terms of the purchasing of government and private debt, or the provision of foreign direct investment and overseas aid, the United States plays a diminishing role in sustaining global capitalism. Asian countries—most notably China, and to a lesser extent, Japan—have increasingly assumed this role because their leaders see it in their national interest. As holders of trillions of dollars of U.S. debt, these countries arguably provide more stability to the global system than Washington does. The United States is the largest debtor in the world, and contrary to any claims of hegemony, is now a great source of economic instability.

This chapter examines how socioeconomic and political instability affected Indonesian evangelical perspectives and engagement in politics from the early 1990s onward, focusing on the Surakarta region. The study employs in-depth interviews with key academics, historians, and NGO activists and with thirty-five evangelical leaders and pastors, who constitute approximately 40% of religious leaders in Surakarta. Interviews were conducted in January 2001, during the Wahid government, and in July 2001, just after Wahid's fall, as Megawati formed a new government.

The chapter covers the postwar boom and slump, which provided a first indication of how radically the environment had changed since before World War I, although contemporaries did not appreciate its lessons adequately. The different sections of the chapter look at the transition to generalized floating of exchange rates, the postwar boom and the postwar slump (1919–1921), and the aftermath of these.

Since the 1860s Brazilian economic history has been dominated by balance of payments shocks and spiralling inflation. Wide fluctuations in commodity prices, in the supply of foreign capital and also in the ability to attract foreign capital have seen recurrent fiscal shocks, high inflation, and foreign exchange depreciation. Protectionism has played a significant role in public policy and this has had a significant distributive impact when favouring selected groups of the population. Following Great Depression of 1928–32, high protection, quantitative import measures, and foreign exchange controls, as well as discriminatory regulatory legislation significantly affected the volume and distribution of foreign investment. This chapter focuses on the impact of such fluctuations on the attractiveness or otherwise of the Brazilian market for foreign capital. Particular emphasis is placed on insurance and reinsurance companies, among other financial institutions, as the absence of major natural catastrophes have foregrounded the impact of economic instability on the insurance market.

this chapter focuses on financial crises paying attention to the linkages between the macroeconomy, institutions and financial intermediation, pointing out the “perverse” interactions between financial disequilibria, macroeconomic imbalances, and the (in)stability of economic institutions which are typical of crisis periods. The argument stresses that these interactions may delay the return to normality and even induce, under certain conditions, irreversible changes.

There is a growing consensus among economists that differences in institutions, in particular the enforcement of property rights, rule of law, and constraints placed on politicians and elites, have a first-order effect on long-run economic development. This chapter argues that institutions also have a first-order effect on short- and medium-run economic instability. It shows that societies with weak institutions for historical reasons have suffered substantially more output volatility and experienced more severe crises in output, exchange rates, and banking as well as political crisis over the past thirty years. It uses the mortality rates faced by European settlers as an instrument for institutional development and current institutions. It reveals a surprisingly strong relationship between these mortality rates and various measures of instability and crises during the past 30–40 years. This relationship reflects the effect of historically determined institutions (more specifically, institutions shaped by differential European colonization strategies and settlement patterns) on instability.

This chapter reviews Argentina's response to its HIV epidemic. The HIV epidemic in Argentina has changed substantially in demographic and socio-economic terms. These changes have challenged the ability of public health officials and the community at large to deal with the consequences of this devastating disease. Furthermore, the political and economic instability that characterized the region during the last ten years has hampered the design and implementation of sustainable action to fight HIV.

This chapter compares the emotional impact of unemployment, exploring the extent to which the emotional wellbeing of the unemployed person is affected by the characteristics of the context in which the unemployment is experienced. It is shown that Denmark is where young unemployed people have the greatest probability of finding a job, and that this probability is lowest in Italy. It is also noted that the economic difficulties experienced by young people in northern European countries are greater than those found in southern European countries. It can be concluded that it is in Denmark where young people are in the best situation. The data also indicate that the economic instability associated with unemployment is a basic factor affecting the mental health of the unemployed.

A juxtaposition of the key ideas in Hyman Minsky’s writings against passages from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission makes clear that Minsky’s main ideas about economic instability were prescient. Nevertheless, Minsky did not provide a well-defined model of his framework, which might be one of the reasons his ideas have not been more readily accepted by economists, policymakers, and the media. In addition, behavioral economics was not well developed during most of Minsky’s career, and he did not provide a strong psychological foundation for his assertions about behavior. This paper uses ideas from behavioral economics to extend the treatment of psychology in Minsky’s framework. It also explores the role psychology has played in limiting the influence of Minsky’s work.

In 2009-2010, China adopted a more contentious foreign policy. On a range issues, China engaged in seemingly disproportionately assertive diplomacy toward relatively minor issues in East Asia, eliciting hostile diplomacy from nearly all of its neighbors. China’s contentious diplomacy did not reflect realist assumptions about the sources of foreign policy, such as a major challenge to security or improved military capabilities. Rather, China’s policy change reflected the emergence in China of significant domestic economic and political instability and the corresponding increased pressures on the Chinese leadership to adopt a nationalist foreign policy. An examination of two case studies, Chinese policy toward U.S.-South Korean naval cooperation and the Japanese arrest of a Chinese fisherman, reveals the domestic sources of China’s contentious diplomacy and how nationalist ideas among the public influenced the leadership’s responses.

Argentina has shown rapid economic growth and social welfare development in the early 20th century but by the end of it, decades of extreme economic instability and growing social inequality had relegated Argentina to ‘developing country’ status. Argentina's unusual economic trajectory raises a number of important issues relating to population ageing and development. The country experienced demographic transition considerably earlier than most other developing countries. Early economic growth led to falls in fertility rates, which in turn led to the early onset of population ageing. It also provided the basis for an extensive set of state welfare schemes, including pensions and health insurance. This chapter argues that the high cost of welfare services has been mainly due to policy failures, rather than a direct consequence of population ageing.

This chapter focuses on the emergence of new configurations of economic power and new potentials for economic instability in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008. Whereas economic growth was low, and sometimes negative, in countries suffering from balance sheet recessions, China, India, Brazil, and some emerging economies were enjoying an economic boom. The chapter examines the rise of a dual-speed global economy, disputes concerning currencies and international trade, the decline in the role of the US dollar and the rise to prominence of the Chinese renminbi, economic pressures arising from inflation and deflation, and the dangers when unwinding super-loose monetary policy. It also considers how the interacting weaknesses of all the major global economic players were magnifying, not correcting, global economic inbalances. Finally, it analyzes the economic impact of a debt default and the downsides of quantitative easing.

This concluding chapter reiterates the points made in the previous chapters to tell a story of how a commercial law was created by giving voice in law to broader political economic concerns. Although, as with the Factors Acts, there were instances of conflict between judges and merchants, the overall picture here is not one of judges pushing back against merchants riding the tide of economic progress. Unlike many modern courts, judges did not see their role as simply encouraging commercial activity. This was rooted in the wider belief that commercial activity was not per se desirable, as too much trade was causing economic instability. This was not a mindset specific to judges or lawyers. This analysis itself raises a broader question. Given that large joint stock companies were perceived of us inefficient and even immoral, why did England introduce general incorporation in 1844, and limited liability in 1855? The chapter draws from the foregoing analysis to make some observations.