Globalization and Financial Regulation

Abstract

There has been no shortage of villains in the financial crisis which began in Asia and has now encompassed all major emerging markets: bankers regulators hedge funds and the IMF have all been excoriated for incompetence and immorality. This paper argues that the problems which have emerged from the crisis are structural i.e. they arise from the very nature of financial activity. While the structural problems have been present from the beginnings of finance the advance of technology and of globalization has so exacerbated the problems as to undermine the foundations of the international market order. To highlight the structural nature of the problems this paper will eschew the search for villains and examine the theoretical basis for the globalization of financial markets - the major direction of their recent evolution. Economic theory identifies major difficulties in the presumption that this drive will lead to socially desirable outcomes. The financial crisis can be understood as the exacerbation of these difficulties by globalization and the advance of information technology.