{"id":13262,"date":"2015-10-11T11:31:24","date_gmt":"2015-10-11T16:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13262"},"modified":"2015-10-11T11:31:24","modified_gmt":"2015-10-11T16:31:24","slug":"the-world-economic-order-is-collapsing-and-this-time-there-seems-no-way-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13262","title":{"rendered":"The world economic order is collapsing and this time there seems no way out"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world economic order is collapsing and this time there seems no way out<\/a><\/h3>\n

E<\/span><\/span>urope has seen nothing like this for 70 years \u2013 the visible expression of a world where order is collapsing. The millions of\u00a0refugees fleeing from ceaseless Middle Eastern war<\/a>\u00a0and barbarism are voting with their feet, despairing of their futures. The catalyst for their despair \u2013 the shredding of state structures and grip of Islamic fundamentalism on young Muslim minds \u2013 shows no sign of disappearing.<\/p>\n

Yet there is a parallel collapse in the economic order that is less conspicuous: the hundreds of billions of\u00a0dollars fleeing emerging economies<\/a>, from Brazil to China, don\u2019t come with images of women and children on capsizing boats. Nor do banks that have lent trillions that will never be repaid post gruesome videos. However, this collapse threatens our liberal universe as much as certain responses to the refugees. Capital flight and bank fragility are profound\u00a0dysfunctions in the way the global economy is now organised<\/a>\u00a0that will surface as real-world economic dislocation.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0IMF is profoundly concerned<\/a>, warning at last week\u2019s annual meeting in Peru of $3tn (\u00a31.95tn) of excess credit globally and weakening global economic growth. But while it knows there needs to be an international co-ordinated response, no progress is likely. The grip of libertarian, anti-state philosophies on the dominant Anglo-Saxon political right in the US and UK makes such intervention as probable as a Middle East settlement. Order is crumbling all around and the forces that might save it are politically weak and intellectually ineffective.<\/p>\n