Capital regulation: For and against

Abstract

The liberalization of capital markets in the last twenty years has brought stock and monetary shocks have affected both the industrialized and developing countries. Until recently it was thought that this aspect of globalization was a cost worth paying to achieve an efficient allocation of global resources. This analysis on the subject is affordable while rigorous reading about the most important issues of today's international economy. It presents recent developments have occurred in Asia and Latin America. From the Latin American debt crisis, monetary and fiscal prudence has become the new orthodoxy of those governments who want to reap the benefits from their participation in the new global market. These dreams were interrupted by the recent Asian turmoil that began with the forced devaluation of the Thai baht in July 1997. What was initially perceived it as an overvalued exchange rate of a minor country, quickly became a financial hurricane that threatened to engulf the industrialized economies. Today, globalization has become the enemy of governments as diverse as Russia and Malaysia. The financial crisis that hit Asia sixteen months ago have once again raised the question whether it is possible a reasonable economic stability in a world of integrated capital markets.