ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on crises and crisis management in the world financial and monetary system. It shows how our present problems are a consequence of the changing organization of international finance. It shows that shifts in the relative importance of public, private, and international monetary and financial entities both caused and were caused by the dramatic expansion of international banking activities. Debt crises and volatile foreign exchange fluctuations are the fodder for economic journalists in the 1980s. Declining oil prices and projections of an abundant short-term energy supply have pushed energy news off the front page, at least for the moment. The current situation is one of forced austerity by debtor countries and forced lending by their bankers, with the International Monetary Fund effectively dictating the behavior of both sets of players. The relationship between commercial banks and the United States government has also changed.
