Bitcoin in International Monetary Relations. New Innovation or Old Imperialism?

Bitcoin in International Monetary Relations. New Innovation or Old Imperialism? PDF

Author: Carl Philipp Trump

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2020-08-03

Total Pages: 49

ISBN-13: 334621785X

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Diploma Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Politics - Topic: International relations, grade: Merit, London School of Economics, language: English, abstract: This thesis explores bitcoin, an emerging digital alternative currency and transaction technology, in international monetary relations. Three arguments are made: Firstly, it is claimed that the evolution of the currency space towards the emergence of digital alternative currencies was a well anticipated phenomenon by the academic literature of International Political Economy. The thesis traces the evolution of international monetary relations back to Friedrich von Hayek’s vision of competing private currencies, and particularly to contributions by IPE scholar Benjamin Cohen. Secondly, centralization is claimed to be the main reason for failures of previous digital currencies while bitcoin’s decentralized technology is seen as fulfilling all those long anticipated but never accomplished prerequisites. It is argued that bitcoin is a new innovative transaction technology providing an economic utility for businesses and consumers by reducing transaction costs. The predominantly negative media coverage of bitcoin as a Ponzi scheme or fraud is addressed as a misunderstanding of the necessary prerequisites anticipated in the literature for the evolution of digital currencies. Finally, bitcoin’s transaction technology is looked at from a critical geography perspective emphasizing how it enables capital to flow in currently impenetrable spaces. This dynamic is understood as a continuation of the old imperialist expansion of capital by innovative technological means. In supporting this process, the United States is seen as acting as a hegemony providing a public good by facilitating capital flows.

Super Imperialism - New Edition

Super Imperialism - New Edition PDF

Author: Michael Hudson

Publisher: Pluto Press

Published: 2003-01-20

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780745319902

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Michael Hudson's brilliant shattering book will leave orthodox economists spluttering. Classical economists don't like to be reminded of the ugly realities of Imperialism. Hudson is one of the tiny handful of economic thinkers in today's world who are forcing us to look at old questions in startling new ways. Alvin Toffler, best-selling author of Future Shock and The Third WaveThis new and completely revised edition of Super Imperialism describes the genesis of America's political and financial domination. Michael Hudson's in-depth and highly controversial study of U.S. financial diplomacy explores the faults built into the core of the World Bank and the IMF at their inception which -- he argues -- were intended to preserve the US's financial hegemony. Difficult to detect at the time, these problems have since become explicit as the failure of the international economic system has become apparent; the IMF and World Bank were set up to give aid to developing countries, but instead many of the world's poorest countries have been plunged into insurmountable debt crises. Hudson's critique of the destructive course of the international economic system provides important insights into the real motivations at the heart of these institutions - and the increasing tide of opposition that they face around the world.

Neoliberalism and the Rise of Bitcoin

Neoliberalism and the Rise of Bitcoin PDF

Author: Michelle Trauth

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2018-09-20

Total Pages: 22

ISBN-13: 3668803218

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Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2018 in the subject Sociology - Individual, Groups, Society, grade: 75 - Distinction, Bournemouth University, language: English, abstract: By the end of 2017 almost everybody has heard of Bitcoin. Therefore, the topic of this essay is highly relevant and aims to give an insight on Bitcoin and Blockchain technology, as well as analyze the rise of Bitcoin from a socio-economic viewpoint. By applying the ‘personal enterprise concept’ based on the neo-liberal definition from Dardot and Laval (2013), this essay will look at the correlation between the increase of neoliberalism and the rise of Bitcoin. By highlighting the sociological and financial circumstance that Bitcoin has emerged from, the rise of Bitcoin can be explained. This essay will show how decentralization, the financial crisis of 2008, globalization, digitization and the neo-liberal mindset are the main factors that paved the way for Bitcoin and contributed to its development. The essay will also look at the societal changes that occurred due to digitization to demonstrate why Bitcoin and Altcoins are increasingly popular in today’s network societies.

Money Talks

Money Talks PDF

Author: Nina Bandelj

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-06-09

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 0691202893

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The world of money is being transformed as households and organizations face changing economies, and new currencies and payment systems like Bitcoin and Apple Pay gain ground. What is money, and how do we make sense of it? Money Talks is the first book to offer a wide range of alternative and unexpected explanations of how social relations, emotions, moral concerns, and institutions shape how we create, mark, and use money. This collection brings together a stellar group of international experts from multiple disciplines—sociology, economics, history, law, anthropology, political science, and philosophy—to propose fresh explanations for money's origins, uses, effects, and future. Money Talks explores five key questions: How do social relationships, emotions, and morals shape how people account for and use their money? How do corporations infuse social meaning into their financing and investment practices? What are the historical, political, and social foundations of currencies? When does money become contested, and are there things money shouldn't buy? What is the impact of the new twenty-first-century currencies on our social relations? At a time of growing concern over financial inequality, Money Talks overturns conventional views about money by revealing its profound social potential.

How Would You Like to Pay?

How Would You Like to Pay? PDF

Author: Bill Maurer

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2015-10-14

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 0822375176

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From Bitcoin to Apple Pay, big changes seem to be afoot in the world of money. Yet the use of coins and paper bills has persisted for 3,000 years. In How Would You Like to Pay?, leading anthropologist Bill Maurer narrates money's history, considers its role in everyday life, and discusses the implications of how new technologies are changing how we pay. These changes are especially important in the developing world, where people who lack access to banks are using cell phones in creative ways to send and save money. To truly understand money, Maurer explains, is to understand and appreciate the complex infrastructures and social relationships it relies on. Engaging and straightforward, How Would You Like to Pay? rethinks something so familiar and fundamental in new and exciting ways. Ultimately, considering how we would like to pay gives insights into determining how we would like to live.

The Politics of Bitcoin

The Politics of Bitcoin PDF

Author: David Golumbia

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2016-09-26

Total Pages: 107

ISBN-13: 1452953813

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Since its introduction in 2009, Bitcoin has been widely promoted as a digital currency that will revolutionize everything from online commerce to the nation-state. Yet supporters of Bitcoin and its blockchain technology subscribe to a form of cyberlibertarianism that depends to a surprising extent on far-right political thought. The Politics of Bitcoin exposes how much of the economic and political thought on which this cryptocurrency is based emerges from ideas that travel the gamut, from Milton Friedman, F.A. Hayek, and Ludwig von Mises to Federal Reserve conspiracy theorists. Forerunners: Ideas First is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.

Disrupting Africa

Disrupting Africa PDF

Author: Olufunmilayo B. Arewa

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-07-29

Total Pages: 665

ISBN-13: 1009064223

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In the digital era, many African countries sit at the crossroads of a potential future that will be shaped by digital-era technologies with existing laws and institutions constructed under conditions of colonial and post-colonial authoritarian rule. In Disrupting Africa, Olufunmilayo B. Arewa examines this intersection and shows how it encompasses existing and new zones of contestation based on ethnicity, religion, region, age, and other sources of division. Arewa highlights specific collisions between the old and the new, including in the 2020 #EndSARS protests in Nigeria, which involved young people engaging with varied digital era technologies who provoked a violent response from rulers threatened by the prospect of political change. In this groundbreaking work, Arewa demonstrates how lawmaking and legal processes during and after colonialism continue to frame contexts in which digital technologies are created, implemented, regulated, and used in Africa today.

Characteristics, Strategies and Aspects of Hedge Funds

Characteristics, Strategies and Aspects of Hedge Funds PDF

Author: Daniel Detzer

Publisher:

Published: 2008-11

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783640216086

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Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 1,1, Berlin School of Economics, course: National and International Financial Relations, 13 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: With the recent announcement of the investment bank Bear Stearns that two of their hedge funds High-Grade Structured Credit Enhanced Leverage Fund and High-Grade Structured Credit Fund had become nearly worthless, the discussion about hedge funds was newly rekindled. The funds were mainly invested in the market for mortgages loans to debtors with a medium or low degree of credit worthiness, the so called sub prime lending. They traded with collateralized debt obligations (CDO), which bunch the risk of those loans. Due to the decline in prices of properties and the increase in interest rate debtors got into trouble. Therefore the CDOs lost worth and the funds became bankrupt. Even if that is very problematic for the investors and the investment bank some economists think, that there could occur bigger problems. Meanwhile there are rumours that other funds got into trouble and economists worry that they could destabilize the whole financial system, due to their close relations to other financial institutions. Banks, in particular, which financed the funds, are in danger of being affected. Whether this small crisis will spread or not can actually not be answered. In the next days and months that remains to be seen. But for sure the discussion about hedge funds will be renewed. Therefore this essay will deal with that complicated topic. It is tried to explain what hedge funds are and how they work. For this purpose, first of all a proper definition for hedge funds is given. Secondly, the origin of hedge funds will be described and then the typical characteristics will be elaborated. Next, there is a short overview of the common strategies and about the development of hedge funds given. In the last

Globalization: A Very Short Introduction

Globalization: A Very Short Introduction PDF

Author: Manfred B. Steger

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-05-28

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 0192589326

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We live today in an interconnected world in which ordinary people can became instant online celebrities to fans thousands of miles away, in which religious leaders can influence millions globally, in which humans are altering the climate and environment, and in which complex social forces intersect across continents. This is globalization. In the fifth edition of his bestselling Very Short Introduction Manfred B. Steger considers the major dimensions of globalization: economic, political, cultural, ideological, and ecological. He looks at its causes and effects, and engages with the hotly contested question of whether globalization is, ultimately, a good or a bad thing. From climate change to the Ebola virus, Donald Trump to Twitter, trade wars to China's growing global profile, Steger explores today's unprecedented levels of planetary integration as well as the recent challenges posed by resurgent national populism. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.