GLOSSARY/285LIBOR (LONDON INTERBANK OFFERED RATE)
The interbank interest rate of the London City (very close to the
American 'prime rate', also a basic rate for international loans).
THE LONDON CLUB
The members are the private banks which lend to Third World states
and companies. During the 1970s, deposit banks had become the
main source of credit for countries in difficulty. By the end of the
decade, these countries were receiving over 50 per cent of total credit
allocated, from all lenders combined. At the time of the debt crisis in
1982, the London Club had an interest in working with the IMF to
manage the crisis. The groups of deposit banks meet to coordinate
debt rescheduling for borrower countries. Such groups are known as
advisory commissions. The meetings, unlike those of the Paris Club,
are held in New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt or elsewhere at the
convenience of the country concerned and the banks. The advisory
commissions, which started in the 1980s, have always advised
debtor countries immediately to adopt a policy of stabilisation and to
ask for IMF support before applying for rescheduling or fresh loans
from the deposit banks. Only on rare occasions do commissions pass
a project without IMF approval, if the banks are convinced that the
country's policies are adequate.
THE LONG WAVES OF CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENT
(1826-47, 1848-73, 1874-93, 1914-39, 1940(48)-67, 1968-?)
'The long waves are marked by striking fluctuations in the averages
of growth, with ups and downs between successive long waves
ranging from 50 to 100 percent.... The Marxist long waves theory is
in the last analysis a theory of "long waves in the average rate of
profit". ... In the explanation of the sudden upsurges in the average
rate of profit after the great turning points in 1848, 1893, and
1940(48), extra-economic factors play key roles. And for the very
same reason, Marxists generally should not accept a Kondratieff type
of theory of long cycles in economic development, in which there is,
in the economy itself, a built-in mechanism through which an
expansive long cycle of perhaps twenty-five years leads to a
stagnating cycle of the same length, which then leads automatically