The essays, written by leading experts, examine the history of the international financial system in terms of the debate about globalization and its limits. In the nineteenth century, international markets existed without international institutions. A response to the problems of capital flows came in the form of attempts to regulate national capital markets (for instance through the establishment of central banks). In the inter-war years, there were (largely unsuccessful) attempts at designing a genuine international trade and monetary system; and at the same time (coincidentally) the system collapsed. In the post-1945 era, the intended design effort was infinitely more successful. The development of large international capital markets since the 1960s, however, increasingly frustrated attempts at international control. The emphasis has shifted in consequence to debates about increasing the transparency and effectiveness of markets; but these are exactly the issues that already dominated the nineteenth-century discussions.

Arnd Plagge evaluates public policy for venture capital in the USA and Germany and presents a comprehensive study of the American and the German market for venture capital. He shows that current German public policies aimed at fostering venture capital activity are severely flawed and that only a reversal of priorities, away from supply-side policies towards a demand-oriented stance, will yield real payoffs.

Dieses Buch ist fur Studenten, Praktiker der Wirtschaft und der Politik, Schuler und die interessierte Offentlichkeit geschrieben, die aus beruflichen oder privaten Motiven eine Einfuhrung in die Wirtschaft und Wirtschaftspolitik der USA benotigen. Darin sind auch angrenzeden Fachgebiete mitbehandelt, insoweit sie fur das Verstandnis okonomischer und wirtschaftspolitischer Zusammengenhange wichtig sind, wie etwa das politische System, die Sozialpolitik und das Bildungssystem."

Die "Historische Kommission zu Berlin" betreibt die Erforschung der Landesgeschichte und der Historischen Landeskunde Berlin-Brandenburgs bzw. Brandenburg-Preussens in Form von wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen, Vortragen, Tagungen und Veroeffentlichungen sowie durch Serviceleistungen. Dabei kooperiert die Kommission auch mit anderen Institutionen und begleitet wissenschaftliche und praktische Vorhaben von allgemeinem oeffentlichen Interesse. In der Schriftenreihe werden die Ergebnisse der einzelnen wissenschaftlichen Projekte der Kommission veroeffentlicht.

The essays in this book examine the long history of the international financial system in terms of the current debate about globalization and its limits. In the nineteenth century, international markets existed without international institutions. In the interwar years, attempts (largely unsuccessful) at designing a genuine international trade and monetary system were made at the same time (coincidentally) that the system collapsed. In the post-1945 era, the intended design effort was infinitely more successful. The development of large international capital markets since the 1960s, however, increasingly frustrated attempts at international control.