FINANCIAL GLOBALISATION/55The article in question tells us that the IMF's leading body
recommended an amendment to its statutes to include the removal of
obstacles to capital flows as a specific objective. This led the G24,
which brings together Third World countries and non-GlO industri
alised countries (see glossary), to express its concerns about the
dangers of any hasty liberalisation that would oblige its members to
remove exchange controls and investment restrictions. Such restric
tions still existed at the time in South Korea and, to a lesser degree, in
Chile. In South Korea's case, measures dictated by the IMF and
accepted by S outh Korean officials in December 1997 eliminate these
restrictions. As for Chile, it had legislation that discouraged foreign
investment for a period of less than one year (see article by Carlos
Ominami, Chilean Minister of the Economy between 1990 and 1994,
in Urriola, 1996). This legislation was abandoned in September 1998.
THE MARKET: THE NEW FAITH
Practically all political leaders - whether from the traditional Left or
from the Right, from the North or the South - have a quasi-religious
faith in the market, especially in the financial markets. Or rather,
they themselves are the high priests of this religion. Every day in
every country, anyone with a television can observe masses said in
honour of the market-god - in the form of stock exchange and
financial market reports. The market-god sends his messages
through television anchormen and the financial editors of daily
newspapers. Today, this does not only happen in OECD countries, but
in most parts of the planet. Whether you are in Moscow or Dakar, in
Rio de Janeiro or Timbuctoo, you can receive 'market signals'.
Everywhere, governments have privatised and created the illusion
that the population would be able to participate directly in market
rituals (by buying shares) and reap the benefits in accordance with
how well one interprets signals sent by the market-god. In actual
fact, the small part of the working population that has acquired
shares has no say over market tendencies.
The reader will indulge me for a moment as I take a somewhat
more humorous approach to this sad state of affairs:
In a few centuries, the history books might say that in the 1980s
and 1990s a fetishist cult prospered. The dramatic rise of this cult
will perhaps be associated with two heads of state, Margaret