Introduction

One year ago (November 2010), the 42nd Annual Regional Monetary Studies Conference hosted by the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago paid tribute to my research in the field of money and finance. My reply to the tribute was entitled: Looking Backwards into the Future.   In that presentation I sought to portray the ongoing global economic crisis as one essentially located in the advanced industrialized economies, particularly those situated in the North Atlantic area. My belief then was that global economic recovery was on the way, even if somewhat subdued.

Method-wise, I sought to go beyond the standard neoliberal treatment of global crises as unwelcome episodes in an otherwise ordered and steady evolution of a truly unified and independent global economy, …..