Globalization of Crises and/or the Crisis of Globalization
187that it is about 700 billion dollars, or the cost of Obama's entire stimulus
package, which was supposed to bring an end to the crisis. The estimates
of costs that the U.S.A. has as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
vary, but some data suggest that they may have totaled over a trillion
dollars. By 2008, the debt of citizens, banks, and businesses in the United
States reached 350% of the value of their GDP, and, in the UK, 300% of
the value of GDP.^7
Of course, the American deficit is expressed as growth in other parts of
the world, especially in China and India. This is because the goods
produced in these and other developing countries are affordable to
Americans. Although the U.S.A. remains the world's largest economic
power, it can be noted that the center of gravity of the world economy over
the last thirty years has slowly moved eastward to China and India. On one
hand, this could be seen as a major tendency in planetary development due
to the fact that the rise of India and China has allowed millions of people
to get out of poverty. On the other hand, this has likewise disabled the
poorest people in Africa from pulling out of misery, among other things,
due to the simple fact that they are not able to compete equally in the
global market. All this was an additional shock to the Washington
Consensus. Global inequality has increased in the context of deregulation
and a lack of global redistribution of wealth. One sixth of the world’s
population, or about one billion people, remain desperately poor.^8
The political implications of our explanation of this financial crisis go
far beyond the need to improve financial regulation–although this is very
important. To note, currently there is an apparent decline in the growth of
government expenses, from 5.9 % in 2010 and 10.4 % in 2011 to 1.4 % in
- In addition, we have a situation where the world's budget deficit
reached 2.7 trillion dollars in 2012, or 3.8 % of the world GDP, and the
growth of the world economy has declined from 5.1 % in 2010 and 3.7 %
in 2011, to 3.1% in 2012, while unemployment at a global level has
reached a figure of 9.2% of the world population.^9 All this suggests that
we need a new global regulatory framework based on the new global
medium of exchange and accounting units, which would then imply the
necessary corrections and adjustments to the international financial and
trading system. Above all, it shows that there is a need to create a
substitution for the current development model, which has been based on
an intensive energy sector, spending, and high levels of military
(^7) Gamble, The Spectre at the Feast: Capitalist Crisis and the Politics of Recession.
(^8) Šukoviü, Tržište rada i ekonomske nejednakosti, 157-159.
(^9) The World Factbook – CIA: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-
world-factbook/geos/xx.html