The main theme is how local economic cultures and economic networks in the South and in Eastern Europe are put under strain by global deregulation and how traditional and not so traditional but locally rooted structures of economic life adjust to deregulation or fail to do so. All the contributions, written by different authors, combine a 'flexible specialization in clusters' approach with original empirical data. An Introduction and a concluding chapter by the editors brings out the common issues and conclusions.
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.
This book offers a collaborative investigation of the policies and practices which have redeveloped local and national economies in the aftermath of the global economic crisis which erupted in 2008. It explores 'localised' models of economic development, including problems of diversity and balance and the role of firms, industries and clusters, alongside comparative studies of policy responses to the crisis at local, regional and national levels Global Economic Crisis and Local Economic Development seeks routes for economic development in a post-crisis world. The roles of innovation, entrepreneurship, knowledge infrastructures, public policies, business strategies and responses, as well as global contexts and positioning are explored as investigative themes which run throughout the collection as a whole. This text brings together a range of international disciplinary experts from economics, geography, history, business and management, politics and sociology. Its coverage is comparative and global, with contributions focusing on the U.S., Japan, China, and India, as well as European contexts and cases. This book is of value both for the intrinsic quality of its individual studies and for the contrasts and comparisons enabled by the collection when viewed as a whole. It has an accessible but rigorous style, making it ideal for a range of users including academics, researchers and students who study economic development and regional development.
This book consists of a number of articles presented at the I DUSKE INTERNATIONAL FORUM ?LOCAL INITIATIVES TO THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS? that took place at the University of Deusto on the 24th-26th of February 2010. The forum aimed to be a meeting point and a platform for interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, experiences and initiatives among participants both from Sylff and non-Sylff scientific and professional communities in the light of the 2007-2008 international financial crisis, focusing on feasible, reasonable and creative alternatives to the current socio-economic world view. Moreover, through the forum we exposed and explored some concrete examples of how ordinary people are dealing with and responding to the financial and social challenges posed by the last crisis of capitalism in their everyday lives.
"The immediate welfare costs of an economywide crisis can be high, but are there also lasting impacts? And are they greater in some geographic areas than others? Ravallion and Lokshin study Indonesia's severe financial crisis of 1998. They use 10 national surveys spanning 1993--2002, each covering 200,000 randomly sampled households, to estimate the impacts on mean consumption and the incidence of poverty across each of 260 districts. Counterfactual analyses indicate geographically diverse impacts years after the crisis. Proportionate impacts on the poverty rate were greater in initially better off and less unequal areas. In the aggregate, a large share--possibly the majority--of those Indonesians who were still poor in 2002 would not have been so without the 1998 crisis. This paper--a product of the Poverty Team, Development Research Group--is part of a larger effort in the group to assess the social impacts of economywide crises"--Verso cover.
Economic shocks pose a threat to health and health system performance by increasing people's need for health care and making access to care more difficult - a situation compounded by cuts in public spending on health and other social services. But these negative effects can be avoided by timely public policy action. While important public policy levers lie outside the health sector, in the hands of those responsible for fiscal policy and social protection, the health system response is critical. This book looks at how health systems in Europe reacted to pressure created by the financial and economic crisis that began in 2008. Drawing on the experience of over 45 countries, the authors:' analyse health system responses to the crisis in three policy areas: public funding for the health system; health coverage; and health service planning, purchasing and delivery 'assess the impact of these responses on health systems and population health' identify policies most likely to sustain the performance of health systems facing financial pressure' explore the political economy of implementing reforms in a crisisThe book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the choices available to policy-makers - and the implications of failing to protect health and health-system performance - in the face of economic and other forms of shock.--
Cities, counties, school districts and other local governments have suffered a long-lasting period of fiscal challenges since the beginning of the Great Recession. Metropolitan governments continue to adjust to the "new normal" of sharply lower property values, consumer sales, and personal income. Contributors to this volume include elected officials, academics, key people in city administrations, and other nationally recognized experts who discuss solutions to the urban problems created by the Great Recession. Metropolitan Resilience in a Time of Economic Turmoil looks at the capacity of local governments to mobilize resources efficiently and effectively, as well as the overall effects of the long-term economic downturn on quality of life. Introducing the reader to the fiscal effects of the Great Recession on cities, the book examines the initial fraying and subsequent mending of the social safety net, the opportunities for pursuing economic development strategies, the challenges of inter-jurisdictional cooperation, and the legacy costs of pension liabilities and infrastructure decay. Contributors are Phil Ashton, Raphael Bostic, Richard Feiock, Rachel A. Gordon, Rebecca Hendrick, Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, David Merriman, Richard Nathan, Michael A. Pagano, Breeze Richardson, Annette Steinacker, Nik Theodore, Rachel Weber, and Margaret Weir.
Contents: (1) Recent Developments and Analysis; (2) The Global Financial Crisis and U.S. Interests: Policy; Four Phases of the Global Financial Crisis; (3) New Challenges and Policy in Managing Financial Risk; (4) Origins, Contagion, and Risk; (5) Effects on Emerging Markets: Latin America; Russia and the Financial Crisis; (6) Effects on Europe and The European Response: The ¿European Framework for Action¿; The British Rescue Plan; Collapse of Iceland¿s Banking Sector; (7) Impact on Asia and the Asian Response: Asian Reserves and Their Impact; National Responses; (8) International Policy Issues: Bretton Woods II; G-20 Meetings; The International Monetary Fund; Changes in U.S. Reg¿s. and Regulatory Structure; (9) Legislation.
