The Disorders of Unrestricted Capital Mobility, and the Limits of the Orthodox Imagination

This book review provides a critique of Robert Solomon's' Money on the Move: The Revolution in International Finance since 1980'. According to the reviewer, Solomon has written a highly descriptive account of some of the major developments in global financial markets over the past two decades. His impressive compilation of events is couched in an objective, value-neutral narrative, thereby suggesting that the tide of orthodox policy reforms is as inevitable as the sun rising. But lurking just beneath the surface are the usual neoclassical assumptions that one might expect of a former chief international economist of the Federal Reserve Board: that markets work best when free of government restrictions; and that the best way for countries to foster economic development is to attract private foreign investment - particularly short-term portfolio capital. Solomon's Money on the Move represents a real contribution to global financial studies by providing an excellent description and chronology of events in global markets. But until more economists are willing to imagine alternative visions of progressive institutional reform, public discussion of global finance will remain trapped in a conformity that serves the interests of the few.