ABSTRACT
The world on entering the last decade of the twentieth century is poised at a significant turning point in the international economic system; and at the heart of the changes occurring is the international financial system. The characteristic of the manufacturing era that dominated most of the twentieth century was its highly concentrated nature. The financial system is even more concentrated. Decisions made on a regular basis in a handful of world cities dictate the operations of critical parts of the entire world. Not since the metropolitan dominance of the great imperial powers of the nineteenth century has such control been exercised so clearly. There are two basic differences: communications now link the world in a web of extraordinary complexity; and at the heart of the system is private enterprise rather than government.
