Recasting the Power Politics of Debt: structural power, hegemonic stabilisers and change

What is it about?

The 2007–08 financial crisis exposed and exacerbated the debt pathologies of the West. This paper examines whether the new global debt relations that have been generated by this crisis have transformed global power politics, changing the way in which the global South and the global North interrelate and interact. To do so the paper analyses the G20 advanced and emerging economies, examining a number of key indicators related to debt, indebtedness and financial leverage. This research leads to two main findings. First, the crisis has indeed given rise to new global debt relations. As a result, any reforms in the post-crisis global political economy will take place in an environment that favours the rising powers. Second, the USA maintains its capacity to control the parameters of this new global debt politics and economics, but cannot directly impose the terms of a solution to the existing ‘global/hegemonic imbalances’ on the rising powers. Key sections: -The view ex ante: reversed Keynesianism and financial engineering -Distinctive elements of the current debt crisis -The West under the debt microscope: total debt and debt thresholds -Debt as external dependency -Exorbitant privileges and hegemonic stabilisers: Exchange rate valuation, Asset price valuation, Other and residual valuation -In the final analysis, agency matters as much as structure

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Why is it important?

Key sections: -The view ex ante: reversed Keynesianism and financial engineering -Distinctive elements of the current debt crisis -The West under the debt microscope: total debt and debt thresholds -Debt as external dependency -Exorbitant privileges and hegemonic stabilisers: Exchange rate valuation, Asset price valuation, Other and residual valuation -In the final analysis, agency matters as much as structure

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