Financial Markets, Money and the Real World

by Paul Davidson

Paul Davidson investigates why the 1990s was a decade of financial crises that almost precipitated a global market crash. He explores the reasons why the global economy still struggles with the aftermath of these crises and discusses the possibility that volatile financial markets in the future will have real impacts on whole industries and national economic systems. The author highlights the central role that domestic and international financial markets play in determining the economic growth rate, unemployment rate and international payments position of capitalist economies. He explains why the primary function of financial markets is to create liquidity and demonstrates that a liquid market cannot be efficient, and an efficient market cannot be liquid. He also proves that preventing liquidity problems from developing in national and international financial markets is the key element in fostering prosperity. Statistical evidence and theoretical analysis are combined to demonstrate why orthodox prescriptions for 'liberalizing' labor, product, and capital markets are the wrong policies for promoting a civilized society in the 21st century. Professional economists, financial reporters, government policy makers, those working in international economic organizations such as the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, and concerned citizens will all benefit greatly from reading this highly acclaimed book.

Genres: Economics, Finance

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Davidson did not originally choose economics as a profession. His primary training was in chemistry, for which he got a BSc from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1951 he worked in that same university as an instructor in physiology and chemistry. He soon switched to economics, receiving his MBA from the City University of New York in 1955, and completing his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in 1959.

He has taught economics at University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, Bristol University, University of Cambridge, and the University of Tennessee. He is a Visiting Scholar at the Schwartz Center For Economic Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research and is currently an Emeritus Holly Professor of Excellence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is especially known for promoting a Post Keynesian school of macroeconomics. He and Sidney Weintraub founded the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics in 1978. He is the Editor of the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics.