WEA Conference: Ideas towards a new international financial architecture?
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WEA Conference: Ideas towards a new international financial architecture?
On line Conference Date, Discussion Forum: May 15, 2015 – July 15, 2015
Leaders: Oscar Ugarteche Galarza and Alicia Puyana Mutis
Introduction
The existing international financial architecture, left over institutions from the Bretton Woods period, proved useless to prevent or warn about the 2007-2008 crisis, or even less, solve it. Only when a new presidential grouping (G20) meeting was called in London in March 2009 were the issues discussed on how to coordinate countercyclical policies and inject resources into the economies. At that time, a UN high level Commission was named to propose reforms to the international financial architecture. The results of what became known as the Stiglitz Commission came to light in April 2010 but were shunned by some large UN member countries in the light of the non-acceptance of the principle of global solutions for global problems. Indeed, some European countries and the US still insist on national solutions, meaning the use of local regulatory agencies in the international financial field.
Eight years have elapsed since the crisis emerged in 2007. The impact on the real sector as well as the financial sector is still being felt, with no regrets from leading financial institutions or Central Banks’ authorities. The leading financial problems are being dealt with at a national level in spite of being a global problem. Since 2010, the SEC has imposed large fines on TBTF banks for wrongdoings in the definition of LIBOR, the commodity markets, the exchange markets and the fraudulent sale of collateralized debt obligations with credit risk approval from the large three American credit rating agencies, while European regulators have done some of the same. Simultaneously, vulture funds attacked Argentina and made evident a nonsense of having the last creditor obtain better payment terms than the first, breaking the usual understanding of the pari passu principle while a New York judge held the country hostage to his decisions. Finally all the G7 economies have come to reflect over 100% public debt to GDP ratios with only one approach to solve the problem: austerity. The consequence has been depress economic activity and prices and growth, and to increase the debt indexes sharply.
Considering this background, the question arises of the need for a new international financial architecture.
Call for papers
The conference focuses on the current global financial scenario and what appears as the new international financial architecture poses many questions that need to be addressed:
- How did the crisis affect the structure of the financial sector in the different regions of the world, what provisions where implemented to manage the impact?
- Has the financial crisis impact the financial flows for productive sectors in the regions?
- Have the regional financial architectures been reformed after the crisis? Do they have any margin of autonomy to reform or are they totally dependent of foreign banks and external funds?
- Can the vulture funds be considered an element of the so called new financial structure to prevent crises or one more cause of instability?
- Are the IMF and the available existing international reserves sufficient to prevent another major crisis?
- Can the IMF be reformed given European and US reluctance to do so?
- How should a debt work out mechanism function in this new global scenario?
- Are there lessons from the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980’s for Europe? Or is it new type of crisis?
- Are the austerity programs recently imposed on indebted countries the appropriate policy measures to prevent financial crises such as the one in 2008?
Papers falling within the broad topic of the conference, though on aspects not explicitly noted here, are also welcome.
Submissions:
The deadline for paper submissions is May l, 2015.
Please submit the papers to mailto:weanewfinancialarchitecture@gmail.com
Please include the names, email addresses, and affiliated institutions or organizations. The guidelines for manuscripts can be found at: http://www.worldeconomicsassociation.org/conferences/guidelines/
Conference leaders:
Oscar Ugarteche Galarza
Ph. D in History and Philosophy from the University of Bergen, Norway, M. Sc. from the London Business School of the U of London, BS in Finance from the College of Business Administration, Fordham University, New York. Previously at the Catholic University of Peru and international consultant on foreign debt issues, he moved to Mexico in 2005 and entered the Institute of Economic Research at UNAM as professor in the Faculty of Economics and senior researcher. He also belongs to the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores since 2008. His career includes visiting scholarships at University of Newcastle, 2014; the Latin America Institute of the Frei Universitat von Berlin,. 2011; Institute of Latin American Studies, U. of London, 2000; Centre for Development, U. of Bergen 1993 and 1995, St Antony´s College, Oxford, 1987. Besides 50 book chapters and almost 60 papers, he also published twenty two books some with more than one edition, mostly in Spanish, one in English. Some recent titles include Historia Crítica del Fondo Monetario Internacional; Arquitectura Financiera Internacional: genealogía 1850-2008; La Gran Mutación. El capitalismo en el siglo XXI.
Alicia Puyana Mutis
Phil in Economics by Oxford University. Professor and researcher at Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, FLACSO, 1997 to day, teaching economic growth for D. Phil courses at FLACSO. Member of: the Colombian Academy of Economics Sciences, the Mexican Academy of Sciences, the International Development Economics Association IDEAS, the Consejo Editorial de la Editorial Anthen Press (for the Anthen Studies on Globalization). Her latest book publications (as an author, coauthor, or editor) since 2012 include: La economía petrolera en un mercado politizado y global. México y Colombia; México. De la crisis de la deuda al estancamiento económico; Diez años del TLCAN. Las experiencias del sector agropecuario mexicano; América Latina. Problemas del Desarrollo en la Globalización 1980-2013; Strategies against Poverty. Designs from the North and Alternatives from the South.
From: pp.8-9 of World Economics Association Newsletter 5(2), April 2015
http://www.worldeconomicsassociation.org/files/Issue5-2.pdf