ABSTRACT
Crises are not rare occurrences in the world economy. We can readily point to major problems of excessive debt, financial fragility, exchange-rate volatility, extraordinary levels of governmental and international deficits, commodity imbalances and inadequate political leadership - all present with marked severity during the last decade. Diligence in searching the historical record may demonstrate that such disturbed conditions were experienced in irregular instances throughout the life of capitalistic production and exchange. However, the present incidence of debt, lack of hegemonic leadership and fragility of the international monetary system (perhaps, of banking and stock markets too) are special. We have moved into a phase of crisis rather than one of modest disturbances to the world economy. Even the powerful elite of the IMS have recognized some need for corrective actions although considerable doubts persist as to what these should entail – primarily because of the ideological pressures of familiar beliefs and, to some extent, because of plain ignorance or fear. Few economists and politicians presume that the present crisis must lead to an extensive collapse of the world economy but most of them are gradually acknowledging the hazards of the situation in which we find ourselves. Almost no one anticipates that these hazards will be expeditiously resolved either by the individual acts of the principal players on the international scene or by their collaborative efforts. We are, indeed, 'groping' for guided choices of appropriate actions and for the fora or mechanisms by which or through which such choices can be implemented without making the IMS or impoverished nations susceptible to future shocks.
