KPDS-2009-Autumn-01

ÖSYM • osym
Nov. 22, 2009 1 min

A key feature of globalization has been the transformation of the world economy, highlighted by the rapid integration of markets since 1970. In a series of historic changes, the international agreements that had regulated the movement of people, goods, and money since World War II were overturned. To begin with, the postwar economic arrangements sealed by various treaties steadily eroded in the late 1960s, as Western industrial nations faced a double burden of inflation and economic stagnation. A crucial shift in monetary policy occurred in 1971, when the United States abandoned the postwar gold standard and allowed the dollar to range freely. As a result, formal regulations on currencies, international banking, and lending among states faded away. They were replaced with an informal network of arrangements managed autonomously by large private lenders, their political friends in leading Western states, and independent financial agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The economists and administrators who dominated these new networks steered away from the interventionist policies that had shaped postwar planning and recovery. Instead, they relied on a broad range of market-driven models termed “neoliberalism.”


Share this article:

Related Articles:

KPDS-2008-Spring-01

May 4, 2008 • osym

KPDS-2008-Spring-02

May 4, 2008 • osym