Explaining Global Financial Imbalances: A critique of the saving glut and reserve currency hypotheses Thomas I. Palley

This paper examines three different explanations of the global financial imbalances. It begins with the neoliberal globalisation hypothesis that explains the imbalances as the product of the model of globalisation implemented over the past thirty years. It then examines the saving glut and reserve currency hypotheses. The paper concludes by arguing that both the saving glut and reserve currency hypotheses are inconsistent with the empirical record and both provide a misleading guide for policy.

global_financial_imbalances (Download the full text in PDF format)

(The paper was originally published as a working paper by the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK).)