Global economic crisis and systemic failure

Starting from a perspective of study which is mainly focused on the understanding of the interaction between the dynamics of economic systems and the dynamics of institutions, in this paper I will address to three main research questions and, at least in a preliminary way, try to answer them. The first research question is: after two years from the materialization of the worst global economic crisis since the 1930s, what do we know about its nature, determinants and exit guidelines? The second research question reads: in the present economic debate a recurrent use of the notion of systemic risk/crisis/failure can be observed. Do we have and do we need a theory of systemic failure? The third research question deals with solutions. “Legal global standards” are discussed in the international negotiations framework. Do they offer positive answers to one of the most worrying feature of the crisis, the governance deficit? In my perspective the actual victim of the present crisis is the approach to the new global economy governance underway after the Berlin Wall fall in 1989, which paved the way to the transition process in East and Central Europe, German reunification and dramatic changes in global interdependencies still in evolution. As emphasized also by Unctad (2009, p. iii), “The crisis dynamics reflect failures in national and international financial deregulation, persistent global imbalances , absence of an international monetary system, deep inconsistencies among global trading, financial and monetary policies.” And , in the last 20 years: “Financial deregulation created the build-up of huge risky positions whose unwinding has pushed the global economy into a debt deflation….”.