Simone Deos

Facing the 2008 crisis: Brazilian Central Bank and public banking system as Minskyan ‘big banks’: A Comparative Perspective

The authors pick up on Hyman Minsky’s concept of a ‘big bank’, that is, the central bank as a lender of last resort, which together with big government stabilizes the economy. According to the authors, the provision of liquidity in order to avoid the financial crisis can be performed by a group of public banks in coordination with the central bank, thereby jointly playing the role of big banks. Empirically, they show that the impact of the 2008 crisis on the Brazilian economy was rather limited because the Brazilian Central Bank together with the public banks supplied sufficient liquidity for non-financial agents. Specific institutional characteristics of the Brazilian financial system have allowed these big banks to react promptly to the crisis.

Beyond the market failure argument: Public banks as stability anchors: A Comparative Perspective

The authors emphasize an overlooked raison d’Aatre for public banks. They argue that limiting public banks to filling the gaps left by private banks, the standard argument in economics, neglects a very important dimension of public banks, that is, their capacity to act countercyclically and thereby stabilize access to credit during economic downturns. Taking a cue from Hyman Minsky, they point to the immanent volatility of financial markets dominated by private actors. In order to counter destabilizing tendencies, the presence of institutions with the logic of action that differs from that of the market is necessary. As public banks are not primarily concerned with profitability, they can play this role. To a certain extent, their presence in the market is an automatic stabilizer because public banks provide credit with long maturation. In times of crisis, they can also be used for discretionary intervention, that is, opening up new credit lines.

Por uma economia política da financeirização: teoria e evidências

The end of the Bretton Woods agreement led not only to changes in the international economic relations, but also in the very way in which capitalism functions. The liberalization of capital flows and deregulation and integration of financial markets under US leadership gave rise to a new systemic pattern of wealth, financialization, in which operations with financial assets received increased importance in the management of wealth by households and enterprises, and not only by banks and the other financial market institutions. Unlike most recent interpretations of this phenomenon, this one does not indicate a tendency of the system towards stagnation, but rather an increase in the instability that characterizes it, reinforcing the moments of expansion, contraction, as well as leading to crises. In fact, with the generalization and the dominance of finance, borrowing and spending decisions by enterprises and households are now increasingly responsible for current and expected fluctuations in the stock of wealth, which in turn are responsive to current and expected fluctuations in the prices of financial assets. This implies a transformation in the relationship between the state and the market, with central banks and national treasures becoming hostage to the need to prevent private losses and the perverse effects they may exercise over output, income and employment levels of the economy.

INTEGRAÇÃO REGIONAL E CONVERGÊNCIA ECONÔMICA REAL: LIÇÕES DA EXPERIÊNCIA EUROPEIA

Ao longo dos ultimos cinquenta anos, o projeto de integracao regional europeu tornou-se progressivamente mais complexo e passou a contar com um numero cada vez maior de paises membros, bastante diferentes do ponto de vista estrutural. O artigo buscou avaliar os efeitos desse ousado projeto sobre as desigualdades socioeconomicas preexistentes entre esses paises. A analise de indicadores selecionados mostrou que houve indicios de convergencia economica real entre 1993 e 2008. No entanto, a crise europeia representou uma inflexao nessa trajetoria. Sustenta-se que a criacao de politicas e instituicoes comuns, capazes de auxiliar os paises membros mais atrasados a superar as estruturas que caracterizam o subdesenvolvimento, decerto contribuiu para esse processo. Entre elas, destaca-se a politica regional, ou de coesao, da Uniao Europeia. Contudo, o arranjo macroeconomico a que se submeteram os paises europeus nos ultimos anos limitou consideravelmente a sua capacidade de estimular o crescimento do produto, da renda e do emprego, impondo, assim, importantes limites ao processo de convergencia entre eles.

Cooperação financeira no Mercosul e o financiamento do investimento

The regional integration systems that arose during the 1990s, such as Mercosur, were implemented during the so called financial globalization period. However, the connection of the economies in the periphery to the international financial markets has not been able to solve the key question of long term financing for investment. The literature in the Keynes tradition points out that the shortage of long term funding is a key problem. In this regard, the financial system should be able to provide resources, especially long term resources, for investment funding, minimizing uncertainty and making it feasible to acquire capital assets with longer maturities. This paper aims to analyze the importance of regional financial cooperation to strengthen the long term financing mechanisms in the Mercosur economies.

A IMPORTÂNCIA DE INSTITUIÇÕES FINANCEIRAS REGIONAIS PARA O FORTALECIMENTO DA INTEGRAÇÃO ECONÔMICA ENTRE OS PAÍSES DO MERCOSUL

This paper intends to point to the increasing importance of a group of financial institutions in South America, especially in Mercosur, in the financing of investments and also in the financing of the balance of payments. In doing so, this work intends to discuss regional financial cooperation relatively to regional monetary integration. The macro analysis of the economies in Mercosur points to a structural instability of these economies and makes clear that it is necessary to reduce the instability to be able to go ahead with the integration process. In the perspective we adopt in the paper, macroeconomic coordination, which is necessary to deepen integration, is going to be a result of a stronger regional financial cooperation