Abstract

Poor countries have been affected by the crisis in various ways and more than previously thought. This study, based on research by developing country researchers, sheds some light on what is really happening at the country level, and goes beyond vulnerability studies or global forecasts. We need to continue to monitor the effects of the crisis to stimulate the policy responses that are needed as a matter of urgency – policy responses that have not, to date, been forthcoming. Both developing and developed countries need to build their resilience to economic shocks and ask themselves whether growth and development strategies, economic policies and institutions need a complete rethink in these turbulent times. Why does affluence coexist with dire poverty not only across different continents but also within the same country or even the same city? Can traditional, low - productivity, subsistence societies be transformed into modern, high productivity, high - income nations? To what extent are the development aspirations of poor nations helped or hindered by the economic activities of rich nations? These and many other questions concerning international and national differences in standards of living, in areas including health, and nutrition, education, employment, and life expectancies, might be posed on the basis of even this very superficial look at life around the world. The series of the current global economic and financial crises especially in the USA and the European Stock Exchange Markets, in the international division of labour and the global distribution of economic and political power led by free markets economies; that clearly indicates the collapse of Adam Smith’s ideology and the Thatcher-Reagan free - market model that dominated thinking for 30 years has been discredited. A practical solution of the current ills is possible.

Key words: Global economic, financial crisis, world bank, world economy.