Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T14:56:23.479Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Anglo-American development, the Euromarkets, and the deeper origins of neoliberal deregulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2015

Abstract

This article challenges existing accounts of the development of the Euromarkets by arguing that their emergence constituted the foundational moment in the advent of a postwar Anglo-American developmental field. The account contends the notion of a postwar order shaped predominantly by the outward expansion of American financial power, by deprivileging the exclusivity of American power and arguing that co-constitutive Anglo-American developmental processes were the generative force that produced the Euromarkets. Drawing upon new archival material, the article suggests that an Anglo-American developmental sphere, in which Britain continued to play a crucial but subordinate role, was key to the unfolding of postwar financial globalisation. The Anglo-American developmental processes occasioned by the Euromarkets gave rise to a ‘transatlantic regulatory feedback loop’ that stimulated deregulation on both sides of the Atlantic and placed Anglo-American capitalist interdependence at the centre of the politics of globalisation. The deeper origins of financial deregulation lie in the transformation of Anglo-American finance during the 1960s.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© 2015 British International Studies Association 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author would like to thank Leo Panitch and Hannes Lacher for their support throughout the creation of this article, as well as Sandy Hager, Colin Hay, Andrew Hindmoor, Mick Moran, and Ronen Palan for their thoughtful comments and encouragement. Finally, thank you to the anonymous reviewers and editors for their insightful feedback.

References

1 The term ‘Euromarkets’ applies to transactions of offshore currency in two distinct but related markets: the ‘Eurocurrency/Eurodollar’ and ‘Eurobond’ markets.

2 See Bell, Geoffrey, The Euro-Dollar Market and the International Financial System (London: Macmillan, 1973)Google Scholar; Schenk, Catherine, ‘The origins of the Eurodollar Market in London: 1955–63’, Explorations in Economic History, 35 (1998), pp. 221238CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 See Burn, Gary, The Re-Emergence of Global Finance (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998)Google Scholar; Ingham, Geoffrey, Capitalism Divided? The City and Industry in British Social Development (London: Macmillan, 1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 See Block, Fred, The Origins of International Economic Disorder: A Study of United States International Monetary Policy from World War II to the Present (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977)Google Scholar; Eichengreen, Barry, Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008)Google Scholar; Helleiner, Eric, States and the Reemergence of Global Finance: From Bretton Woods to the 1990s (London: Cornell University Press, 1994)Google Scholar.

5 See Gowan, Peter, The Global Gamble: Washington’s Faustian Bid for World Dominance (London: Verso, 1990)Google Scholar; Konings, Martijn, The Development of American Finance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Panitch, Leo and Gindin, Sam, ‘Finance and American Empire’, in Panitch and Konings (eds), American Empire and the Political Economy of Global Finance (London: Macmillan, 2009), pp. 1748CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Strange, Susan, ‘The persistent myth of lost hegemony’, International Organization, 41 (1987), pp. 551574CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Burn, Gary, ‘The state, the City, and the Euromarkets’, Review of International Political Economy 6:2 (1999), pp. 225261CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Ibid., p. 227; Burn, Global Finance, p. 184.

8 Burn, , Global Finance, p. 135Google Scholar.

9 Gowan, Global Gamble; Panitch and Gindin, ‘Finance and American Empire’; Konings, American Finance.

10 Panitch, Leo and Gindin, Sam, The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire (London: Verso, 2012), p. 119Google Scholar.

11 Konings, , American Finance, p. 88Google Scholar.

12 In a similar vein, Rawi Abdelal has criticised the literature on financial globalisation for failing to appreciate Europe’s central role from the 1980s onwards. Abdelal, however, overlooks the role of Anglo-America, leaving Britain’s role under theorised: Abdelal, Rawi, Capital Rules: The Construction of Global Finance (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007)Google Scholar.

13 Konings, Martijn, ‘The construction of US financial power’, Review of International Studies, 35:1 (2009), pp. 6994CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 See Konings, , ‘Construction of US power’, pp. 8687Google Scholar; Konings, , American Finance, pp. 9398Google Scholar.

15 Strange’s formulation of structural power is circular: America has structural power because it can shape the choices and preferences of other actors, but it can do so only because it already has acquired structural power. There is no notion of how structural power capacities develop diachronically within this ahistorical tautology.

16 For a discussion of the problem of political space in Panitch and Gindin’s work see Garrod, J. Z., ‘A critque of Panitch and Gindin’s theory of American Empire’, Science & Society, 79:1 (2015), pp. 3862CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 For theorisation of the City’s entrepôt role see Ingham, G., ‘Commercial capital and British development: a reply to Michael Barratt Brown, New Left Review, 1:172 (1988), pp. 4566Google Scholar.

18 See Konings, American Finance; Krippner, Greta, Capitalizing on Crisis: The Political Origins of the Rise of Finance (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011)Google Scholar.

19 See in this regard Harvey, David, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)Google Scholar; Krieger, Joel, Reagan, Thatcher and the Politics of Decline (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986)Google Scholar.

20 See Cox, Robert, Production, Power and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987)Google Scholar; Gilpin, Robert, U.S. Power and the Multinational Corporation: The Political Economy of Foreign Direct Investment (New York: Basic Books, 1975)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Keohane, Robert, After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984)Google Scholar.

21 Block, , Origins of International Economic Disorder, p. 197Google Scholar; Strange, Susan, ‘The dollar crisis 1971’, International Affairs, 48 (1971), pp. 191216CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Burk, Kathleen, ‘The House of Morgan in financial diplomacy, 1920–30’, in McKercher (ed.), Anglo-American Relations in the 1920s: The Struggle for Supremacy (London: Macmillan, 1991), pp. 125158CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chernow, Ron, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance (London: Simon & Schuster, 1990), p. 276Google Scholar.

23 Block, , Origins of International Economic Disorder, p. 14Google Scholar; Konings, , American Finance, p. 71Google Scholar.

24 Burnham, Peter, The Political Economy of Post-war Reconstruction (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ruggie, John, ‘International regimes, transactions, and change: Embedded liberalism in the postwar economic order’, International Organization, 36 (1982), pp. 379415CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Eichengreen, , Globalizing Capital, p. 91Google Scholar; Pauly, Louis, Who Elected the Bankers? Surveillance and Control in the World Economy (London: Cornell University Press, 1997), p. 45Google Scholar.

26 Ingham, Capitalism Divided?

27 Gowan, Global Gamble; Panitch and Gindin, Making of Global Capitalism.

28 Jones, Geoffrey, British Multinational Banking, 1830–1990 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), pp. 248287Google Scholar.

29 Burn, , ‘The state, the City and the Euromarkets’, p. 226Google Scholar. Schenk describes this regulatory context as one that, ‘encouraged innovation as a means of evading controls while tolerating such innovations ex post’: Schenk, ‘Origins of Eurodollar’, p. 233.

30 Palan, Ronen, The Offshore World: Sovereign Markets, Virtual Places, and Nomad Millionaires (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006), pp. 2732Google Scholar.

31 Ferguson, Niall, High Financier: The Lives and Times of Siegmund Warburg (London: Penguin, 2010), pp. 159160Google Scholar.

32 Kerr, Ian, A History of the Eurobond Market: The First 21 Years (London: Euromoney, 1984), p. 14Google Scholar.

33 Ferguson, , High Financier, pp. 209218Google Scholar.

34 Bell, , The Euro-Dollar Market, p. 9Google Scholar.

35 Konings, , American Finance, p. 100Google Scholar.

36 Ibid., p. 107.

37 Eichengreen, , Globalizing Capital, p. 126Google Scholar.

38 Ibid., pp. 123–5.

39 Schenk, Catherine, The Decline of Sterling: Managing the Retreat of an International Currency, 1945–1992 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 167CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 10.

40 Sylla, Richard, ‘U.S. banks and Europe: Strategy and attitudes’, in Battilossi and Cassis (eds), European Banks and the American Challenge: Competition and Cooperation in International Banking Under Bretton Woods (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 5374Google Scholar.

41 Bank of England (BoE) Archives 6A123/1, ‘Economic Intelligence Department Files: Euro Currencies – Including Euro Dollars and Euro Bonds 1/1/64-31/7/65’, Report on Meeting of Experts on the Euro-currency Markets at the BIS, 9–11 November 1963.

42 BoE Archives 6A123/5, ‘Economic Intelligence Department Files: Euro Currencies – Including Euro Dollars and Euro Bonds 1/1/68-31/5/69’, Memo from Treasury to the Bank of England requesting Prime Ministerial brief on the Eurodollar market, 22 October 1968.

43 BoE Archives 6A123/1, Letter regarding document to be prepared by the Bank of England in response to a Treasury request for information of the standing of the Eurodollar market, 6 March 1964.

44 BoE Archives 6A123/3, ‘Economic Intelligence Department Files: Euro Currencies – Including Euro Dollars and Euro Bonds 1/8/65-31/10/66’, Memo from Bank of England Overseas Office charting US banks drawing dollars through London branches, 22 August 1966.

45 Kane, Daniel, The Eurodollar Market and the Years of Crisis (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1983), p. 13Google Scholar.

46 Richard Sylla describes this transformation aptly, suggesting that while American banks gave little consideration to operations in Europe before 1963 they, ‘thought about little else in the decade thereafter’. See Sylla, ‘U.S. banks and Europe’, p. 62.

47 Burn, , Global Finance, p. 158Google Scholar.

48 BoE Archives 6A123/3, ‘Economic Intelligence Department Files: Euro Currencies – Including Euro Dollars and Euro Bonds 1/8/65-31/10/66’, Memo from Bank of England Overseas Office charting US banks drawing dollars through London branches, 22 August 1966.

49 Kane, , Eurodollar Market, p. 13Google Scholar.

50 Ibid.

51 The ‘Eurodollar slop’, an expanding pool of ex-patriate dollars that tended to move predominantly back and forth across the Atlantic, was the underlying root of the dollar crisis of 1970/71 that preceded Nixon’s delinking from gold and the de facto termination of Bretton Woods: Strange, ‘Dollar crisis’, p. 198.

52 BoE Archives 6A123/6, ‘Economic Intelligence Department Files: Euro Currencies – Including Euro Dollars and Euro Bonds 1/6/69-31/3/70’, Report on the ‘Meeting of Experts on the Euro-Currency Market’, 12 July 1966.

53 BofE Archives 6A123/6, ‘Economic Intelligence Department Files: Euro Currencies – Including Euro Dollars and Euro Bonds 1/6/69-31/3/70’, Transcript of presentation given by Andrew Brimmer, ‘The Eurodollar Market and the US Balance of Payments’, 17 November 1969.

54 Konings, ‘Construction of US power’, p. 80.

55 National Archives (NA) IR40/16006, ‘Discussions with Financial Secretary, Treasury and Revenue on whether companies should be encouraged to borrow on Eurodollar market 1966–1978’, Memo from Treasury to Inland Revenue, 1968.

56 NA IR40/16006, ‘Meeting between Financial Secretary, treasury and Bank of England Officials’, 17 May 1968.

57 NA IR140/16006, ‘Note by the Financial Secretary on Eurodollar Borrowing’, May 1968.

58 Ibid.

59 NA IR140/16006, ‘Memo from Inland Revenue to Treasury Officials’, 29 May 1968.

60 NA IR140/16006, ‘Treasury letter to the Inland Revenue’, 4 October 1967.

61 Ferguson, High Financier, p. 225.

62 Ibid., p. 285.

63 NA IR40/16006, ‘Memo from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Treasury’, 13 September 1967.

64 NA IR40/16006, ‘Treasury paper on the possibility of borrowing abroad to finance the nationalised industries and local authorities’, 25 May 1967.

65 Ferguson, High Financier, p. 285.

66 Konings, , American Finance, p. 12Google Scholar; Panitch, and Gindin, , ‘Finance and American Empire’, p. 19Google Scholar.

67 Brimmer, Andrew and Dahl, Frederik, ‘Growth of American international banking: Implications for public policy’, The Journal of Finance, 30 (1975), pp. 341363CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

68 Mizruchi, Mark and Davis, Gerald, ‘The globalization of American banking, 1962 to 1981’, in Dubbin (ed.), The Sociology of the Economy (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004), pp. 95127Google Scholar.

69 Panitch and Gindin, Making of Global Capitalism; Strange, ‘Myth of lost hegemony’.

70 BoE Archives EID4/113, ‘Home Finance: Banking – General Papers 7/12/64-17/11/66’, Internal memo, Bank of England –‘New American Banks in London – Dealing Limits’, 5 March 1969.

71 Ibid.

72 Michie, Ranald, ‘The City of London and the British government: the changing relationship’, in Michie and Williamson (eds), The British Government and the City of London in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Moran, Michael, The Politics of Banking (London: Macmillan, 1986), p. 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

73 Burn, , ‘The state, the City and the Euromarkets’, p. 227Google Scholar; Burn, , Global Finance, p. 184Google Scholar.

74 BoE Archives 6A123/1, ‘Economic Intelligence Department Files: Euro Currencies – Including Euro Dollars and Euro Bonds 1/1/64-31/7/65’, Report on Meeting of Experts on the Euro-currency Markets at the BIS, 9–11 November 1963.

75 Kapstein, Ethan, Governing the Global Economy: International Finance and the State (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1996), p. 324Google Scholar.

76 The most prominent crises in this respect were the major losses of Lloyds’ Lugano branch, the collapse of the Israel British Bank in Tel Aviv, the Franklin National Bank in New York, and most notably of all the failure of the West German, Bankhaus Herstatt. See Capie, Forrest, The Bank of England: 1950s to 1979 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

77 Kapstein, Ethan, ‘Resolving the regulator’s dilemma: International coordination of banking regulations’, International Organization, 43 (1989), pp. 323347CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

78 Goodhart, Charles, The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, A History of the Early Years, 1974–1997 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

79 Kapstein, , ‘Resolving the regulator’s dilemma’, p. 324Google Scholar.

80 Michie, , ‘The City of London’, pp. 4546Google Scholar.

81 Certificates of Deposit are negotiable certificates received by the depositor in return for a time-deposit placed with a bank: Oxford Dictionary of Finance and Banking (4th edn, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

82 Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, , Overseas and Foreign Banks in London: 1962–1968, 8:2 (1968), pp. 156166Google Scholar.

83 Coakley, Jerry and Harris, Laurence, The City of Capital: London’s Role as a Financial Centre (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), pp. 138140Google Scholar.

84 Lewis, M. and Davis, K., Domestic & International Banking (Hemel Hempstead: Philip Allan, 1987), pp. 9Google Scholar, 83.

85 Banking Information Service, International Banking: The Role of the Major British Banks (London: Banking Information Service, 1985), p. 11.

86 Aliber, Robert, ‘Eurodollars: an economic analysis’, in Savona and Sutja (eds), Eurodollars and International Banking (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1985), pp. 7798CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jones, Geoffrey, ‘Competition and competitiveness in British banking, 1918–1971’, in Jones and Kirby (eds), Comeptitiveness and the State: Government and Business in Twentieth Century Britain (New York: Manchester University Press, 1991), pp. 120141Google Scholar.

87 Jones, , British Multinational Banking, p. 326Google Scholar.

88 Jones, , ‘Competition and competitiveness’, p. 135Google Scholar.

89 Moran, , Politics of Banking, p. 22Google Scholar.

90 Battilossi, Stefano, ‘Banking with multinationals: British clearing banks and the Euromarkets’ challenge, 1958–1976’, in Battilossi and Cassis (eds), European Banks and the American Challenge: Competition and Cooperation in International Banking Under Bretton Woods (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 103135Google Scholar.

91 Moran, , Politics of Banking, p. 30Google Scholar.

92 Panitch, and Gindin, , Making of Global Capitalism, p. 149Google Scholar.

93 Landau, David, ‘SEC proposals to facilitate multinational securities offerings: Disclosure requirements in the United States and the United Kingdom’, New York University Journal of International Law & Politics, 19 (1987), pp. 457478Google Scholar; Longstreth, Bevis, ‘Global securities markets and the SEC’, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Business and Law, 10 (1988), pp. 183193Google Scholar.

94 BoE Archives EC5/649, ‘Exchange Control Act File: Relaxations – Papers Covering the Relaxation and Dismantling of Exchange Controls 6/9/79-17/9/79’, ‘Exchange Controls in the USA’, 26 July 1979; ‘Japan Exchange Control’, 26 July 1979.

95 BoE Archives, 4A115/3, ‘Monetary Analysis: External Development and Policy Meetings 4/1/78-28/12/79’, Memo from the Bank of England Overseas Department, ‘New York as a Free Trade Banking Zone’, 31 May 1978.

96 BoE Archives 4A115/3, ‘Monetary Analysis: External Development and Policy Meetings 4/1/78-28/12/79’, Memo from the Bank of England Overseas Department, ‘New York as a Free Trade Banking Zone’, 31 May 1978.

97 See Greider, William, Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), p. 155Google Scholar; Krippner, Greta, Capitalizing on Crisis: The Political Origins of the Rise of Finance (London: Harvard University Press, 2012), p. 73Google Scholar; Panitch, and Gindin, , Making of Global Capitalism, p. 169Google Scholar.

98 Moran, Michael, ‘The state and the financial services revolution: a comparative analysis’, West European Politics, 17 (1994), pp. 158177CrossRefGoogle Scholar.