Market Fundamentalism
The word “market fundamentalism” describes and criticizes the economic policy which has been dominant in the West. The price mechanism of the free market perceives that regulation and redistribution procedures (e.g. corresponding rules) are unnecessary and are therefore rejected due to their distorting effect.
Marshall Plan (USA)
The European Recovery Program, the official title of the Marshall Plan, was a US financial economic recovery program for a Europe devastated after the second world war. It was named after the US Foreign Minister George Marshall (Nobel Peace Prize, 1953). The rebuilding of Europe aimed at creating economic strength and the containment of Soviet communism, but the program also served the re-strengthening of European export markets, which profited the US themselves. The Marshall Plan combined the self-interest of their financial backer, the US, with economic aid for an improved Europe.
Millennium Declaration
On September 18, 2000 the UN General Assembly used the turning of the millennium as an occasion to adopt the Millennium Declaration. A large proportion of the international conferences in the 90’s were involved with merging already adopted development goals, creating, for the first time in the history of international collaborations, a common catalogue of goals. The United Nations (UN) used these goals to formulate a vision for the future, which would put development and environmental goals in the spotlight next to the preservation and sustainability of world freedoms.
Homepage for Millennium Declaration
Millenium Goals
The Millennium Declaration officially dedicated the United Nations and almost all the nations of the world to the goal of halving the number of people who have to live on less than one dollar per day by the year 2015. The concrete main goals (UN Millennium Development Goals) are named in the declaration:
(1) Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger,
(2) Primary education for all,
(3) Promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women,
(4) Reduction of infant mortality,
(5) Improvement of maternal healthcare,
(6) War on HIV/AIDS,
(7) Ecological sustainability, and
(8) Creation of a worldwide development partnership.
The declarations goals are only attainable through large expense and drastic means.
Montreal Protocol
For the protection of the climate and atmosphere the 1987 so-called Montreal Protocol was adopted. It controls emissions which harm the ozone layer.
New Economic Geography
Spatial economics, named “new economic geography”, is a specific branch of political economics which is built on the new growth and foreign trade theory. It analyzes the causes and manifestations of spatial differentials and the spatial organization of innovation processes, such as their result on the appearance of international division of labour in world economics.
New Growth and Foreign Trade Theory
Since the 1980’s a new quantitative model in political economics has developed, which is more dynamic and far more realistic in comparison to traditional statistic analysis. Consequentially influential factors, such as education (accumulation from human capital) and economic measures could be included as part of the analysis. Correspondingly dynamic models of international trade have led to new perceptions of the long-term mutual dependency of nations, especially regarding international debt levels. The new economic geography is also based on the New Growth and Foreign Trade Theory
New Institutional Economics
The new institutional economics, representing an important base of the modern political economics, is assumed to be deviated from the classic model presentation of a perfect market’s bounded rationality and especially its restricted information. Along with production and price formation, trading and regulation rights, transaction costs (e.g. for the information purchases) and buyer-seller relationship are also analyzed.
Offshore Banking
The concept of “offshore” refers to established buildings abroad. They are defined in the financial sector as an economic specialty and along the lines of real off-shore areas are excluded from taxes. Particular islands are often considered part of the offshore realm. In this case, national duties and taxes are not applied because the islands are legally considered foreign countries.
Open Market
Open Market means the abolition of protective markets (protectionism), in other words, the abolition of duties or other rules that stand in the way of market access for foreign countries. A well-known example: the EC Market, which is practically impenetrable for agricultural production from developing countries.
Open Society
The concept of open market is derived from Karl Popper’s book titled “The Open Society and its Enemies”. Open society allows intellectual and cultural exchanges; as opposed to closed societies, which are ideologically pre-determined. The opposite of open society is totalitarianism (source: Wikipedia, 09 Aug 2004)
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
In 1961 the OECD, a loose alliance of industrial nations originated in the Organization for European Economic Co-operation founded in 1948, was created in order to coordinate the Marshall Plan. The statutory goals of the OECD are as follows: optimal economic development and an increasing standard of living in their member states; foster economic wealth in their member countries as well as in developing countries; and promoting the expansion of world trade.
Homepage for OECD
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
The Viennese-based OPEC was founded in 1960 in Baghdad to stabilize oil prices. Since both oil crises of 1973 and 1979, OPEC gained increasing power and essentially, even when under pressure of other nations, served the national interests of it's member nations. They control around 40% of the world wide petroleum production and possesses nearly over three-fourths of the worldwide petroleum reserves.
