From Bretton Woods to the Casino Economy
Strange, Susan. In Money, Power and Space, edited by Stuart Corbridge, Ron Martin, Nigel Thrift, 49-62. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994.
Strange argues as she has frequently done for the importance of historical understanding power in the international financial structure is to be fully analysed. She suggests that there are two separate but linked aspects of the global political economy that need to be thought about within the financial structure - the international monetary system and the international financial system. Thus, Strange focuses on credit creation to examine the upheavals in the financial structure and the decline of the Bretton Woods system. She also suggests that acquiescence in the uneven distribution of the benefits derived from financial 'freedom' may be becoming less assured in the post Cold War global system. While larger states have (at least for the time being) managed to retain some of their power in the financial structure, smaller states have seen a decline in their ability to resist the pressures from the international money markets. Once again Strange discusses the shift in power from states to markets, and implicitly reinforces her arguments for the centrality of structural power considerations.
Keywords: Authority; Markets; Money and Finance; States; Structural Power, Power; Authority vs Markets
Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Stuart Corbridge and Editor: Ron Martin Keywords: Authority, Markets, Money and Finance, States, Structural Power, Power, 1990's Source and Medium: Book Chapter
Year of Publication: 1994