World Capital Markets: Challenge to the G-10

It is often pointed out that "for every bad borrower & for every failed project, there is also a culpable lender or investor." This observation is particularly apt for the debate now raging in the capital markets: should private bankers & investment managers bear a greater share of the costs when financial crises erupt in emerging economies? Critics who have analyzed the "plumbing" of the world's financial architecture have thus far devoted enormous attention to the demand side -structural weaknesses in emerging markets. They have excoriated the IMF for ineptitude policy mistakes. But the authors of this study argue that financial leaders of the G-10 nations (industrial nations that were hardly affected by the crises of 1997-98) owe a responsibility -- both to their own citizens & the emerging markets -- to take a far more vigilant stance Dobson and Hufbauer criticize the supply side of world capital markets & ask how G-10 capital suppliers can reform their own financial systems to make the world safe for large-scale international capital flows.They draw a comprehensive picture of international finance through an extensive review of capital flows, the major financial players behind these flows & the balance between costs & benefits of international capital movements. The authors analyze the implications of changing the rules of the game & recommend specific policy measures. March 2001. 175 pages (approx). ISBN: paper 0-88132-301-2. $20.00.Gary C. Hufbauer is the author of 'World Capital Markets: Challenge to the G-10' with ISBN 9780881323016 and ISBN 0881323012.