The International Organization of Credit
States and Global Finance in the World-Economy

Randall Germain explores the changing political economy of finance at the global level.

Randall D. Germain (Author)

9780521591423, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 October 1997

224 pages, 5 b/w illus. 8 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.5 kg

'There is no doubt that The International Organization of Credit merits close attention. Anyone interested in the restructuring of relationships within the world economy, and particularly the power of finance, will find this a wide-ranging, innovative and thought-provoking contribution to, and construction of, both IPE as a discipline and the international political economy as everyday practice.' Adam David Morton, International Affairs

In this book, Randall Germain explores the international organization of credit in a changing world economy. At the centre of his analysis is the construction of successive international organisations of credit, built around principal financial centres (PFCs) and constituted by overlapping networks of credit institutions, mainly investment, commercial, and central banks. A critical historical approach to international political economy (IPE) allows Germain to stress both the multiple roles of finance within the world economy, and the centrality of financial practices and networks for the construction of monetary order. He argues that the private global credit system which replaced Bretton Woods is anchored unevenly across the world's three principal financial centres: New York, London, and Tokyo. This balance of power is irrevocably fragmented with respect to relations between states, and highly ambiguous in terms of how power is exercised between public authorities and private financial institutions.

List of figures and tables
Preface
Note on figures and tables
Glossary
1. Routes to international political economy: accounting for international monetary order
Part I. The International Organization of Credit in Historical Perspective: 2. The power of cities and their limits: principal financial centres and international monetary order
3. Between change and continuity: reconstructing 'Bretton Woods'
Part II. The Contemporary International Organization of Credit: 4. The era of decentralized globalization
5. Decentralized globalization and the exercise of public authority
6. Finance, power and the world-economy approach: towards an historical-institutional international political economy
Appendix: top merchant/investment banks, by city and era
References
Index.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS]