The transformation of the world economy / Robert Solomon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Solomon, Robert.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic history--1970-1990.

Economic history--1990-.

Economic history.

Physical Description:

xii, 217 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke, Hampshire [England] : Macmillan Press ; New York : St. Martin's Press, 1999.

Summary:

This revised, extended and updated edition of Robert Solomon's well-received The Transformation of the World Economy, 1980-93, assesses the remarkable changes in the world economy in recent decades. The impact of marketisation and globalisation in both industry and finance at regional and global levels are analysed and discussed. Dramatic changes in economic policy and philosophy have occurred in most areas of the world's economies. The United States and Britain experienced Reaganomics and Thatcherism, followed by Clintonomics and Blair's 'New Labour'. Continental Europe moved, with some traumas, to the Euro. Eastern Europe and Russia have become, painfully, countries in transition to market economies. China now calls itself a 'socialist market economy'. Japan experienced a 'bubble economy' followed by its worst postwar recession. Japan's Asian neighbours, after a growth 'miracle', fell into crisis in 1997. Latin America experienced a debt crisis and a 'lost decade' in the 1980s, attracted capital again in the 1990s, and then felt the contagion effect of the Mexican and Asian crises. Meanwhile the world economy became more highly integrated -- globalised -- under the impact of computer technology and the information revolution. These and other transformations are analysed in their political contexts in this wide-ranging book.

Contents:

2 The Way it Was in 1980 5

3 Changing Philosophies of Economic Policy 12

3.1 Thatcher and Reagan 12

3.2 Thatcher's Britain 13

3.3 Reagan's America 15

3.4 Mitterrand's France 20

3.5 Japan 22

3.6 Germany 23

3.7 Countries in transition 24

3.8 Developing countries 24

4 America and Britain 25

4.1 United States 25

4.2 The United Kingdom 38

5 Adjusting to Shocks in France, Germany and Japan 51

5.1 France 51

5.2 Germany 62

5.3 Japan 67

6 Economic Interactions and Economic Integration 76

6.1 International payments imbalances 76

6.2 Enhanced mobility of capital 79

6.3 Exchange-rate policies 81

6.4 US balance of payments 84

6.5 European integration 85

6.6 Integration in North America 93

7 The Elements of Economic Reform: Eastern Europe 95

7.1 Central planning 95

7.2 The process of transition to a market economy 98

7.3 Progress and problems of reform 103

7.4 Trade and investment with the West 106

7.5 The outlook 107

8 Chaos and Reform in the Soviet Union and Russia 108

8.1 Glasnost and perestroika 110

8.2 Crisis and break-up 113

8.3 Russia 116

8.4 The outlook 122

9 From Mao Zedong to Zhu Rongji: Economic Reform in China 124

9.1 Pre-reform developments 125

9.2 The reformers 127

9.3 Reform in the countryside 129

9.4 Industrial reform 130

9.5 Macroeconomic developments 133

9.6 International trade and investment 134

9.7 Political and social conditions 136

9.8 The outlook 137

10 Other Asia: Dragons, Tigers and an Elephant 139

10.1 The four tigers 139

10.2 The East Asian miracle 140

10.3 Korea 141

10.4 Malaysia 144

10.5 Indonesia 144

10.6 Thailand 145

10.7 The East Asian crisis 146

10.8 India 147

11 Middle East and Africa: Oil, Wealth and Poverty 153

11.1 The rise and fall of OPEC 153

11.2 Turkey 156

11.3 Saudi Arabia 158

11.4 Egypt 161

11.5 Other Middle Eastern countries 162

11.6 Sub-Saharan Africa 162

11.7 South Africa 164

12 Democratisation and Reform in Latin America 165

12.2 Onset of the debt crisis 167

12.3 Dealing with the debt crisis 168

12.4 Mexico 170

12.5 Argentina 178

12.6 Chile 180

12.7 Brazil 182

13 Problems and Promises of an Uncertain Future 184

13.1 The role of governments in economies 185

13.2 Unemployment in industrial countries 187

13.3 Balance-of-payments deficits 188

13.4 The changing status of developing countries 189

13.5 Coping with capital mobility 190

13.6 The role of the International Monetary Fund 191

13.7 Globalisation 191

13.8 The need for policy coordination 193

13.9 Nationalism and fundamentalism 194

13.10 The uncertain future 194

13.11 The basis for future prosperity 195.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 196-207) and index.

ISBN:

0312221118

0312221126

OCLC:

60231050