ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned mainly with the internal consequences of processes of economic integration, especially with aspects associated with the financial and monetary spheres. It points out that economic integration mainly transforms the international dynamic into something very close to the regional dynamic, and so the proper reference space is no more nations but regions, mainly defined economically. Another important issue focused on here is the distinction between central and peripheral economies which are integrating with each other, and the possible outcomes for these economies of the two processes of liberalization and globalization. In order to do this, we consider first the position of the orthodoxy on the convergence of growth trends between regions, demonstrating that their case for convergence rests mainly on the assumption of decreasing marginal returns to capital. Moreover, this is the result of a certain conception of money in which it is a ‘mere convenience’ which cannot have real consequences. This is because they assume a that allows agents to know the future, and so they are able to predict the state of the world through the theory of probability and thus operate under risk and not true uncertainty.
