To commemorate the completion of 10 eventful years, International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs) organised a Conference titled ''Global Economy in a Time of Uncertainty: Capitalist trajectories and progressive alternatives'' in Muttukadu, Chennai, during 24-26 January 2012, and a Seminar titled ''Whither Global Capitalism'' in the Convention Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, during 28-29 January 2012. This section contains the contributions by the various participants in the two events.

• IDEAs Conference on ‘The Global Economy in a Time of Uncertainty: Capitalist trajectories and progressive alternatives’, Muttukadu, Chennai, India, 24-26 January 2012.
    
  Click for the Conference Report

Following the financial crisis, much has been done for preventing systemic failure in the financial sector, stalling economic downturn and ensuring a recovery. However, the adequacy and appropriateness of the measures adopted remain questionable. As far as reforming the financial sector is concerned, despite a spate of proposals, agreement on the appropriate mix of policies and the progress with implementation have been limited. This section presents papers and articles that analyse the adequacy of various proposals and measures, the challenges that could arise at the time of implementation and advocate additional or alternative measures. Some of these papers also take a renewed look at the veracity of the arguments given for explaining the genesis of the crisis.

It is now more than two years since the sub-prime lending crisis in the US mortgage sector came to light. The unprecedented financial crisis in the developed world brought with it the end of the illusion of the market being ''efficient''. This section presents papers and articles that seek to explain the causes and consequences of the U.S. sub-prime mortgage crisis. Through a critique of the underlying structure and dynamics of deregulated finance, they analyse how this crisis led to a generalized credit crunch in other financial sectors and ultimately affected the world economy at large. There are also theoretical papers that explore the related issues, all of which provoke a fundamental rethink on financial liberalisation in order to reduce the systemic and global instability associated with it.

International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs) organised a two day conference on 'The Value of Money in Contemporary Capitalism' in New Delhi on 12th and 13th of September. The conference was meant to address issues around the role of money in contemporary capitalism, in both national and international contexts. The starting point was a new book by Prof. Prabhat Patnaik entitled “The Value of Money”. The book provides a logical critique of monetarism, which has become the dominant stream of contemporary macroeconomics. The first part of the conference focused on a consideration and assessment of the arguments made in the book, at both theoretical and empirical levels. The second part of the conference was devoted to analyses of recent tendencies in money, finance and real economies in particular countries and in the world economy.

In spite of some downturn in food prices, it seems that the global food crisis is here to stay. FAO projections for 2008-2017 show much higher decadal prices for food than the decade just past. This puts under threat the poor in developing countries and make the millennium goals that much more unattainable. While supply and demand mismatches may turn out to be short run factors, the sheer price volatility in food markets show that the role of speculation cannot be ignored. The emergence of biofuels also poses a threat to global food security. However, the long run policy neglect of agriculture in developing countries and a warped policy approach to liberalise trade at whatever cost to domestic food sufficiency remain the basic crux of the matter.

This is a set of papers which covers theoretical and empirical research on the issue of inflation targeting. The papers specifically cover various outcomes of inflation targeting as well the controversies, exploring alternative approaches, methodologies and solutions. While the impact on employment remains a primary concern of the papers, other specific issues which have been covered are; employment costs of inflation reduction in developing countries from a gender perspective, looking at the nature of inflation targeting from a class based social perspective, a comparison of inflation targeting and real exchange rate targeting in affecting economic growth and employment. In addition, country specific studies on the impact of inflation targeting and alternatives in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Turkey, India, Vietnam, and Philippines are included.

This IDEAs conference was held to mark the completion of a decade since the onset of the financial crises of 1997 in several East Asian Countries. The crisis, whose effects are still visible, focused attention on the dangers associated with a world dominated by fluid finance. This particular conference was concerned with delineating the alternative trajectories of post-crisis development in different economies, the lessons they offer and their implications they have for alternative policies.

• China as a 'Model' of Utilizing Foreign Capital for Economic Development:Perceptions, Observations and Interpretations
  Dic Lo
  
• China's Economic Growth, 1978-2005: Structural Change and Institutional Attributes
  Dic LO & LI Guicai