global financial system

(noun)

The global financial system is the financial system consisting of institutions and regulators that act on the international level, as opposed to those that act on a national or regional level. The main players are the global institutions, such as International Monetary Fund and Bank for International Settlements, national agencies and government departments, e.g., central banks and finance ministries, private institutions acting on the global scale, e.g., banks and hedge funds, and regional institutions, e.g., the Eurozone.

Related Terms

Examples of global financial system in the following topics:

  • Capitalism in a Global Economy

    • This is an example of globalization.
    • The global financial system is the financial system consisting of institutions and regulators that act on the international level, as opposed to those that act on a national or regional level.
    • Today, these trends have bolstered the argument that capitalism should now be viewed as a true world system, given that all national economies trade with capitalist states and are therefore influenced by capitalist policies.
    • Globalization refers to the increasing global relationships of culture, people, and economic activity.
    • Analyze the shift in the job market and increase in international trade due to an increase in globalization

  • Global Aging

    • On average, global life expectancies have been increasing and birth rates declining, resulting in global aging.
    • The current strain on America's social security system is largely the result of an aging population.
    • As more people in a nation's population reach old age, its healthcare and social security system will be strained.
    • Growing life expectancy is not the only factor contributing to global aging.
    • These two trends, stemming from the growing global economy, cause global aging.

  • Global Trade: Inequalities and Conflict

    • Global trade (exchange across international borders) has increased with better transportation and governments adopting free trade.
    • Global trade is the exchange of money, goods, and services across international borders.
    • In most countries, global trade now accounts for many of the goods and services bought or sold, and many companies earn profits from global trade.
    • Free trade may favor developing nations in certain areas, may benefit only the wealthy within countries, may increase offshoring, and may destabilize financial markets.
    • In response, fair trade, or an economic system that emphasizes living wages for the producers of goods, has developed as an alternative to free trade in the last several years.

  • New State Spaces

    • A global city is a city that is central to the global economic system, such as New York or London.
    • According to global cities theory, globalization is not a process that affects all places evenly.
    • Some of these cities are absolutely central to the operation of the global economic system, and some are more peripheral.
    • The most complex and central cities are known as global cities.
    • In some ways, global cities are more intimately connected to the global economic system and to other global cities than they are to surrounding regions or national settings.

  • Thinking Globally

    • Some scholars use world systems theory.
    • World systems theory stresses that the world system (not nation states) should be the basic unit of social analysis.
    • The most well-known version of the world system approach has been developed by Immanuel Wallerstein in 1970s and 1980s.
    • Other approaches that fall under world systems theory include dependency theory and neocolonialism.
    • The possibilities for thinking globally in sociology are as varied as the world we live in: global finance, global technology, global cities, global medicine, global food.

  • Distribution of Wealth and Income

    • The bottom half of the world adult population owned 1 percent of global wealth.
    • Moreover, another study found that the richest 2 percent of the population owned more than half of global assets as of the year 2000.
    • Various forms of socialism, an economic system in which the state exerts significant control over wealth distribution, attempt to diminish the unequal distribution of wealth and the conflicts that arise from it.
    • Communism, an economic system that (in its ideal form) consists of state ownership of assets and industry and the equal distribution of resources among the population, can be seen as an attempt to eradicate wealth inequality through government policy.
    • This pie chart shows the global distribution of wealth among countries, illustrating the point that a small number of countries hold the majority of global assets.

  • Evaluating Global Theories of Inequality

    • Social theorists think differently about global inequality based on their sociological perspective.
    • There is significant debate among sociologists, other social scientists, and policy makers over the best approach to global inequality.
    • Marxists, by contrast, see global inequality as indicative of exploitation and consider it a detriment to society.
    • Interactionists recognize global inequality, but consider it only in the context of individual relations and, therefore, see no role for state intervention.
    • By protesting the financial institutions that provide capital to economic enterprises, "occupiers" suggest that the market-driven approach to inequality, embraced by financiers, has not resulted in a fair and equitable economic order.

  • World Health Trends

    • At the global level, the three primary poverty-related diseases are AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.
    • Developing countries account for 95% of the global AIDS prevalence and 98% of active tuberculosis infections.
    • Together, these three diseases account for 10% of global mortality.
    • Malnutrition impairs the immune system, thereby increasing the frequency, severity, and duration of childhood illnesses.
    • Finally, health interventions could advance by considering the relationship of national and international politics to the establishment of adequate education and healthcare systems.

  • Global Stratification and Inequality

    • Macro-level analysis considers the role of economic systems in shaping individuals' resources and opportunities.
    • Macro-level analyses of stratification can include global analyses of how positions in the international economic system shape access to resources and opportunities.
    • There are three dominant theories that sociologists use to consider why inequality exists on a global scale .
    • Lastly, world systems theory suggests that all countries are divided into a three-tier hierarchy based on their relationship to the global economy, and that a country's position in this hierarchy determines its own economic development.
    • According to world systems theory as articulated by sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, core countries are at the top of the global hierarchy as they can extract material resources and labor from less developed countries.

  • The Feminization of Poverty

    • Recent attempts to reduce global poverty have utilized systems of microcredit, which give small loans to poor households in an attempt to break the cycle of poverty.
    • Female headed households (where no male is present) are most susceptible to poverty because they have fewer income earners to provide financial support within the household.
    • Microcredit, a system of providing small loans to individuals and families in impoverished areas in an attempt to reverse the cycle of poverty, is almost always distributed to women.