Thread by @ingridharvold

On my way, can't wait!! #MES_Africa2019

https://twitter.com/Mon_Sovereignty/status/1192368840027648001

I was lucky enough to catch the end of Elizabeth Cobett's (@uniofeastanglia) presentation. She studies Africa's financial architectures, and makes the argument that financial integration on the continent happens through powerful financial centers. #MES_Africa2019

The centers she identified are Lagos, Casablanca, Johannesburg and Nairobi. This is far from national sovereignty, it's rather an exercise in geopolitics. @CobettEli #MES_Africa2019

Next up @AndrewM_Fischer who's exploring the contemporary financialized dependence in Africa through the case of Zambia. #MESAfrica2019 #MES_Africa2019

Fischer (@AndrewM_Fischer) methodologically takes a historical structural approach to this question and thereotically a classical structuralist approach. In case of Zambia: Goods surpluses to compensate deficits on income & services account. #MESAfrica2019 #MES_Africa2019

Next up @retepelyod and @LoescherAnne on handling of payments problems: what are the possible solutions? #MESAfrica2019 #MES_Africa2019

I already tweeted a longer version of Peter Doyle's presentation last week so won't do it again! #MESAfrica2019 #MES_africa2019

https://twitter.com/ingridharvold/status/1190240157800304641?s=19

Next up we have Anne Löscher (@LoescherAnne) on implications of foreign currency shortage for African economies and possible solutions.
#AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MESAfrica2019 #mes_africa2019

Löscher traces dependency on international reserve currencies to the currency hierarchy literature. #AfricanMonetarySovereigny #MESAfrica2019 #MES_Africa2019

@LoescherAnne demonstrates how this issue plays out in Ghana, a country with open capital accounts since the 1990s - and also increasing debt, currency appreciation & volatility. #AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MESAfrica2019 #mes_africa2019

She compares Ghana to Ethiopia to demonstrate that some of the same vulnerabilities show up also in countries with more closed capital accounts. #AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MESAfrica2019 #MES_Africa2019

Excited about this debate! Jan Kregel and Prabhat Patnaik 🔥

Moderated by @FadhelKaboub. #AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MESAfrica2019

Prabhat Patnaik's talk is on Monetary Sovereignty in a World of Globalized Finance. #AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MESAfrica2019 #MES_Africa2019

Patnaik outlines his argument on the exploitative system we find ourselves in post-Bretton Woods, with globalized international finance capital, and extraction of raw materials from periphery to maintain the value of money in the core. #AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MESAfrica2019

(This will be a familiar argument to anyone who has read the Theory of Imperialism or Value of Money) #AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MESAfrica2019 #MES_Africa2019

Patnaik moves on to analyzing the case of Francophone Africa. He argued that decolonization has not actually been completed in the region, as is for example illustrated by the governance of the CFA & the constraints it places on countries. #AfricanMonetarySovereignty

Here's the Livestream: facebook.com/RosaLux.NorthA…
#AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MES_Africa2019

Patnaik believes global econ is now stagnating, and given that there is no global solution to stimulate aggregate demand on the table, countries need to delink in a variety of ways (e.g. w/ capital controls & turning towards domestic regional markets). #AfricanMonetarySovereignty

Now Jan Kregel's up. He'll be speaking on financial system sovereignty, economic development and the external constraint (also with reference to why he thinks #MMT is unhelpful to understand development challenges). #AfricanMonetarySovereignty @sanjaygreddy @NakedKeynes

For example, Kregel considers the Job Guarantee. Great initiative! But it doesn't create development as structural transformation. What is needed is domestic financing for development that is targeted and recognizes real constraints.
#AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MESAfrica2019

One of Kregel's proposals is to develop a regional clearing union for developing countries (as Keynes suggested).

Bitcoin or mobile payments will not lead to financial development. #AfricanMonetarySovereignty

Heiner Flassbeck and Cedric Achille Mbeng Mezui ready for the opening plenary.

Livestream here:

https://twitter.com/Mon_Sovereignty/status/1192718100761907200?s=19

Flassbeck is up first and will be speaking on: Global dilemmas, the European trap and the monetary needs of developing countries.
#AfricanMonetarySovereignty

Cedric Achille Mbeng Mezai argues that we need to look at industrialization strategies of successful developers to understand possibilities for industrialization in Africa. Drawing on several examples, he has compiled common characteristics 👇.
#AfricanMonetarySovereignty

Up first in the next session is Patrick Bond on dialectics of neoliberal monetary management and social resistance in South Africa. #AfricanMonetarySovereignty

Bond draws on Rosa Luxemburg for anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-capitalist explanations of exploitations in South Africa.

Also in the tradition, he draws on Samir Amin, Harold & Annmarie Wolpe, Wallerstein and others.
#AfricanMonetarySovereignty
#mesafrica2019 #MES_Africa2019

Francis Garikayi (@UWEBristol) is now presenting on structural financial dependency in Zimbabwe, taking a long duree view. #AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MES_Africa2019

Final panel (before evening keynote) with Hannah Cross, @riazkt & @CoburgerCarla, which takes a critical approach to financial and monetary integration. First up is Coburger on the French CFA's role in perpetuating global inequalities. #AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MES_Africa2019

Her central argument is that the postcolonial monetary regime of the CFA Franc Zone perpetuates the former colonial division of labor and its resulting trade pattern. #AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MES_Africa2019

Coburger observes CFA countries being systematically denied the ability to diversify trade partners, diversify commodity production, as well as the ability to accumulate trade gains to stimulate sovereign development. #AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MES_Africa2019

Riaz Tayob (@riazkt) is now presenting a critique of the proposed African Monetary Union, which involves a single currency for the region. Tayob asks: is this the right solution in order to achieve better regional monetary cooperation?
#AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MES_Africa2019

Tayob calls the plan a "coup d'etat for private markets". The union would require capital mobility, a political & fiscal union, and the convergence criteria include SAP-like conditions (actually, even more neo-liberal, says Tayob).
#AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MES_Africa2019

The African Monetary Institute (to be officially launched next year) outlines 15 effects of the union: 14 benefits and 1 disadvantage.

The disadvantage: you lose sovereignty.
#AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MES_Africa2019

@KaiKodden presenting the evening keynotes: Chibuke Uche and @DanielaGabor 🔥
#AfricanMonetarySovereignty #MES_Africa2019

Messed up thread. It continues here!

https://twitter.com/ingridharvold/status/1192852288618057728?s=19