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The Quarterly "e-Finanse"
  • 2010-07-10
    "e-Finanse" in CEJSH
    It is our pleasure to inform you that beginning with the 02/2010 edition ...
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  • 2009-09-22
    Seminar ‘Anatomy of a crisis. Causes – course of events – effects,’ and a meeting of the Program Council of ‘e-finanse’ on the occasion of its fifth year of existence
    It is with great satisfaction that we publish this special edition of ...
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The Quarterly "e-Finanse", number 3/2009

Financial markets and economies have experienced crises basically since they first existed. This was particularly the case in the 20th century, when the dynamics of their evolution took on an increasingly rapid pace, exposing them to the influences of new forces and initiating previously unknown catalysts of crises phenomena. The cyclicality of economic growth is not really up for discussion these days, although there are many theories to explain its roots and recommending specific methods to deal with it. One may have the impression that the current financial crisis is a surprise at least for some people. It sometimes seems that people believed – particularly in the United States which had experienced an exceptionally long period of prosperity through the last decades of the 20th century – in the hypothesis that after a century of systematically recurring crises, markets and economies had found a way to free themselves. This groundless belief could have been why earlier signs of crisis were ignored and no appropriate action was taken. High stock prices (practically caricatures, or as one prefers – bubbles or mirages,) showing that the financial markets and the emerging processes on them had less and less in common with the fundamentals of the business sector and the entire economy had come to light earlier – it suffices to recall the internet bubble from the beginning of this century. Today it turns out (and also not for the first time) that even though prices were at entirely phantom levels, the costs behind their irrationality are however truly painful.
The current financial crisis been defined primarily by its scale, largely the result of globalization. Its dimensions and far-reaching diffusion into the real sphere of the world economy with all of its shocking effects (anxiety over the possible bankruptcy of some national economies, double-digit falling GDP in some countries) force us to ask certain uncomfortable questions, which (it seems) should have been asked a lot sooner. The question therefore comes back, regarding what caused the crisis, today particularly in the context of the role played by financial innovations or the institutions regulating them. A certain dualism is becoming increasingly clear: on the one hand innovations are the flywheel of growth and economic development, on the other hand, many of them (in the businessmen’s jargon) are financial vehicles which can, as today, threaten economies. It has been known for some time that financial leverage in business also has a dark side. The question of the most adequate anti-crisis tactics is also nervously repeated. Here it’s a conflict over whether markets and economies will basically deal with it themselves with only an insignificant touch from government in creating only positive conditions for Adam Smith’s working of the unseen hand, or if it is necessary to initiate aid given by the visible hand of government. In a certain sense, the current financial crisis is a great economic experiment: the governments of various countries are applying various aids in their economies (in a manner and on a scale for which it is difficult to find a precedent at least throughout the past half-century) and nobody today knows which economic doctrine will turn out to be the best remedy for this crisis. A question of the condition of capitalism has arisen and the likely changes in the shape of power in the global economy in perspective of the next few years. Widely discussed are the potential effects of the current crisis, although opinion is divided here as well. It isn’t known whether the result will be only a relatively short-term recession (perhaps even an economic slow-down) or disastrous unemployment accompanied by economic stagnation, higher inflation than in past years, or, finally, the most painful tandem of unemployment and inflation – stagflation. The only thing that can be said with certainty about the current financial crisis is that it is a crisis of trust. Banks are tightening their credit lines and don’t want to loan money to even each other. Society is mistrustful of government, anxiously awaiting the results of the decisions undertaken by them (often with great delay), and just in case people are limiting their own consumption which only twists the crisis spiral. Economies are reducing their cooperation with each other.
It also seems that the current financial crisis is to an exceptional degree a media phenomenon. Merit-based, deeply scientific debates are lacking, beyond the surface picture of the crisis created by commercial media. It’s here that a scientific type journal has a role to play, aiming to take an active part in the debate on matters of finance which are of particular importance at an individual level or collective, reacting to them with the resources that a scientific journal has at its disposal. Among these matters the current financial crisis can undoubtedly be placed. The basic tool of participation in such a debate, for editors, is to present the opinions of respected people, those with specialist knowledge and experience in the spheres touched on by the debate. An expert discussion with the participation of those with authority in the fields of economics and finance might provide a solution to the many myths and misunderstandings that have arisen around the current financial crisis and could lead to a type of scientific distillation of the key facts, rolled up into an objective, appropriately proportioned, diagnosis of the current situation and prognosis of its development, breaking free from the interpretative excesses characteristic of the media. With such a goal in mind, this special issue of ‘e-finanse’ has beem devoted, dedicated solely to the current financial crisis. For their opinions, (taking into consideration various aspects of the crisis), we asked people with wide experience not only in the study of financial market and economy functions but also those experienced in formulating economic policy, those who link their practical work with research. The result is an unusually interesting study of a wide range of problems linked to the current financial crisis. The spectrum incorporates discussion of its causes, its course, as well as perspectives for development, which is reflected in the title of this special edition. The conclusions formulated here may represent both recommendations for institutions as well as persons responsible for economic policy, as well as indicators of the necessary revaluations in today’s knowledge of what occurs on the financial markets and in economies.

Respectfully yours,
Andrzej Cwynar
Deputy editor-in-chief, ‘e-Finanse’




Streszczenia artykułów opublikowanych w "e-Finansach" są zamieszczane w bazie Central European Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (CEJSH)