American Empire and the Political Economy of Global Finance
by L. Panitch (Editor), M. Konings (Editor)

About the Author
LEO PANITCH is the Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor at York University, Toronto, Canada, and the co-editor of the Socialist Register.
MARTIJN KONINGS is currently a researcher at York University, Toronto, Canada.

About this book
In a lively critique of how international and comparative political economy misjudge the relationship between global markets and states, this book demonstrates the central place of the American state in today's world of globalized finance. The contributors set aside traditional emphases on military intervention, looking instead to economics.

Editorial Reviews
'Panitch and Konings do a marvellous job in bringing together a set of innovative and rigorous chapters that throw critical light on the obscure and complex nature of the American Empire and its role in shaping the landscape of contemporary capitalism. This book is essential reading in understanding how the world works.' - Susanne Soederberg, Canada Research Chair, Global Development Studies, Queen's University, Canada

'This work, written by some of the world's finest scholars on the topic, breaks new ground by demonstrating how finance is anchored in the social structure of the United States in profound and often unique ways. This takes the book far beyond routine assessments of how a dominant political and economic power translates its superiority into financial clout; compared to Europe, let alone the rest of the world, American capitalism also connects a wide variety of interests directly into the financial system. If Gramsci once said that in the United States hegemony grows directly in the factory, this collection demonstrates that it is also directly translated into hegemony in the global financial system. Are we now witness to its demise? At a time of profound financial disturbance, no student of global political economy can afford to ignore this eminent collection.' - Kees van der Pijl, Professor of International Relations, University of Sussex, UK, and author of Global Rivalries from the Cold War to Iraq

Brief contents
1 Demystifying Imperial Finance 1
Part I: Contours and Sources of Imperial Finance 15
2 Finance and American Empire 17
3 American Finance and Empire in Historical Perspective 48
Part II: Constructing the Pillars of Imperial Finance 69
4 US Structural Power and the Internationalization of the US Treasury 71
5 Neoliberalism and the Federal Reserve 90
6 US Power and the International Bond Market: Financial Flows and the Construction of Risk Value 119
7 Towards the Americanization of European Finance? The Case of Finance-Led Accumulation in Germany 135
8 Accounting for Financial Capital: American Hegemony and the Conflict Over International Accounting Standards 159
9 From Bretton Woods to Neoliberal Reforms: the International Financial Institutions and American Power 175
10 The Role of Financial Discipline in Imperial Strategy 198
Part III: Conclusion 223
11 The Politics of Imperial Finance 225
Bibliography 253
Index 275

Series: International Political Economy Series
Pages: 334 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 2009 edition (July 24, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0230551262
ISBN-13: 978-0230551268