Underlying the current disturbances in the world economy is the lack of political and institutional capacity to deal with the accelerating growth of financial assets worldwide. (...) An international housing credit boom, stimulated by low interest rates, led to financial failures in several countries (...) On a broader horizon, the proliferation of financial assets reinforced consumer and industrial demand that has given rise to growing concerns about supply capacity in the world economy, especially for oil, food and water.
This is the third essay published by Norman Gall on Braudel Papers about Money, Greed, Technology, dealing with the proliferation of financial assets. The first two were published on 1998 as Brazil and the Asia Crisis (in Portuguese) and Brazil, Japan, Russia (in Portuguese).