(i) The flow of capital
The free flow of capital is central to the story of the
‘end of geography’ in finance and all periods of globalization
or the reverse have been marked by particularities
in the openness or otherwise of the capital
regime. It is now nearly a half century since the
global capital markets, led by the eurocurrency market,
freed capital markets, created offshore currency
markets (ironically pioneered by communist holders
of dollars) and started to undermine the primacy of
the US dollar-based regime. It is almost four decades
since the breakdown of Bretton Woods. What might
lead to greater controls over the flow of money?
The first current pressure comes from the globalization
of ownership. The economic arguments
would still seem to favour openness to foreign investment,
but political and security arguments
could well change sentiment. The visibility of
sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) is high, and their
visibility to wider constituencies could encourage
(or discourage) protectionist sentiments should politicians
wish to take that route. The second point of
pressure for change may come directly with respect
to the regulation of finance itself. The present financial
crisis has many of the typical hallmarks of previous
financial crises—significant global contagion
risks, calls for a global regulatory response, serious
signs of real market failure, inadequate selfregulation
by market players, threats to the system
and an immediate hindsight reaction against the
excesses and bubbles in the run up to crisis—hence
calls for a root and branch change in ‘the system’.
Greater risks of systemic contagion could increase
the costs of such crises. Paul Krugman has