ABSTRACT
The growth of international banks, and the emergence of new institutions and procedures for moving money around the world have created a new environment which is having important effects on national economies and their internal patterns of development. Both economically advanced and developing countries are affected by the new international financial system. Its impact raises important questions about the appropriateness of conventional theories and models of development. The evidence appears to indicate that nation states do not necessarily follow an inevitable and pre-determined course of development but, rather, they have considerable autonomy in fixing domestic policies in order to use the international system most effectively. In this paper we describe some recent changes in financial operations at the global scale and examine their impact on developing countries in the Pacific rim.
