Matthew Oxenford

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The WTO headquarters in Geneva. Photo: Getty Images.

InternacionalEconomía

The World Trade Organization (WTO) faces arguably the most acute challenge in its 24-year history. Since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, a US administration hostile to multilateralism and tempted by protectionism has worked to undermine the WTO by leaving the body on the brink of being unable to perform one of its central roles: adjudicating the rules of global trade.

If the immediate crisis weren’t enough, structural shifts in markets have raised questions about the long-term suitability of the WTO as a rules-based order for international commerce. What, given certain constraints inherent to the WTO system, are the options for reform?…  Seguir leyendo »

A monitor displays the day's final numbers on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the closing bell on 2 February 2018. Photo: Getty Images

InternacionalEconomía

Financialization – it’s a bit of a buzzword, but what does it actually mean?

In the most general sense, it means that financial services are taking up a larger and larger portion of the global economy. There are really two different types of financialization if you want to talk about this broadly.

The first type is where this is happening across the world in countries like China and India. China is probably the biggest example. The financial system there basically didn’t exist in any sophisticated way 20 or 30 years ago, so some of the basic functions of finance are now being developed.…  Seguir leyendo »

Demonstration in Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece. Photo Getty Images.

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía

On 20 August, the Greek government is scheduled to exit its IMF bailout programme, ending a series of three programmes that have run continuously since 2010. The Greek programme was the largest, most high-profile and most politically controversial in a series of post-global financial crisis bailouts of EU member states organized by the so-called ‘troika’ consisting of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF.

Politically, the course of action taken by the troika has been seen as controversial at best. The Greek economy has now suffered the longest recession of any advanced capitalist economy, overtaking the slump suffered by the US during the Great Depression in 1929.…  Seguir leyendo »

Port of Hamburg, Germany. Photo: Getty Images.

Internacional

On 1 June, the Trump administration announced that exemptions on steel and aluminium tariffs that for the EU, Canada and Mexico would not be renewed. That these tariffs have gone into effect is the latest of many indications that the US government has moved away from supporting the free-trading system, and is instead seeking to attempt to maximize its advantage as a large, diversified economy.

This stance creates a much more dangerous trade landscape. It also rewards larger countries and creates particularly hard choices for the United Kingdom.

A world with no rules

These tariffs, whether by coincidence or design, continue President Trump’s ongoing efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement process.…  Seguir leyendo »

The combination of loose money and fiscal austerity may have prevented a financial meltdown, but has had profound distributional effects. Photo: Getty Images.

InternacionalEconomía

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the 2008 global financial crisis, the most significant financial and economic upheaval since the Great Depression. Recently, it has become tempting to believe that – following expected growth of over 2% in the eurozone for 2017 and a return to increasing interest rates by the Federal Reserve and Bank of England – the global economy has finally returned to normal.

However, this is to ignore the profound and permanent ways in which the global economy has changed as a result of the crisis itself and the policy responses to it, and to underplay the importance of these changes for global economic policy going forward.…  Seguir leyendo »