* Globalization bearer of a new economic order and a new logic of growth. Millions of jobs were, in effect, created across the capitalist world and the rate of unemployment began to decline.
At the same time, the cracks in and then the collapse of the bureaucratic societies made it possible to present capitalism as the heretofore un-avoidable horizon of humanity. Only the Marxists correctly pointed out the limited and contradictory character of this recovery:
rather than sustainable growth, it involved a cyclical movement based, for the main part, on practically mechanical jump-starting of investment, buttressed by the world-wide redistribution. 1.4 THE RELAPSE
The third generalized recession at the beginning of the 90's settled the debate and opened up a new phase, characterized by important reversals. The role of the Gulf War from this points of view appears to have been secondary, since the recession began before the oil crisis in several countries and has gone on much longer than the war, the strictly economic repercussions of which have finally been of little importance. The characteristics of this third recession clearly illustrate the present period: it has been particularly deep, durable and costly in jobs; it has brought about, compared to the two previous recessions, a relative desynchronization which reveals a growing contradiction between the globalization of the economy and the persistence of national trajectories.
Despite initiatives like the Rio summit, the negative ettects on the environment of out-of-control neoliberalism have continued to increase in virtually all parts of the world. 2. A CONTRADICTORY HOMOGENIZATION OF THE WORLD ECONOMY 2.1 THE RE-CENTERING ON THE IMPERIALIST COUNTRIES
The 80's were marked by a growing globalization of economic activity. This can be measured, for instance, by the growth in world trade which is approximately twice as rapid as that of the sum of the national markets: there has been an intensification of commodity trade mainly between the more developed capitalist countries. The same process can be seen in direct investment 6 International Viewpoint movements and in mergers and alliances between large international groups. This movement does not take place following the vertical logic of a segmentation of the international division of labour: the investment movements essentially concern the imperialist countries as does the movement of commodities. Delocalizations towards the Third World play a very secondary role in this
In opposition to this interpretation, some have put forward the reappearance of investment transfers countries in Asia and Latin America, either to prove the success of the World Bank's structural adjustment policies, or to dramatize the competition from lowwage countries. In the case of Latin America, these movements of capital correspond for the main part to investments attracted by the stock and by the wave of privatizations. It is an influx of speculative and very volatile capital.
The case of Asia is different and combines a number of elements. South Korea and Taiwan have followed their own trajectories which have allowed them to escape from the category of dependent countries. This is obvious no matter what criteria are used (income levels, the structure of the productive apparatus, etc.). It we ada the tro mainly financial centres, Hong Kong and Singapore, this creates a pole of powerful growth. But it is Japan which continues to structure the region based on a very compact network of trade and investment. On the periphery of this imperialist centre are to be found countries like Malaysia, Thailand or the Philippines which are integrated into an international division of labour and whose roles are well defined. This is whi the Korean path is not reproducible: the second-rank countries in the region serve the function of supplying the regional Capital with low-wage labour and are not able to accede to the rank of
But the major economic success story of the last decades is, in realit, China which has registered more than a 10"% growth in production over a decade, an exceptional performance given the size ot the population involved. This success is based on a very specific mixture of liberalizing the peasant econom!, developing a mass domestic market, a voluntaristic effort to export from free zones and, finally, brutal repression. 2.2 INTERNATIONAL FINANCE
Consistent with neo-liberal doctrines, the decade of the 80's saw a frenzied financial deregulation which underlay and even amplified the globalization process. Contrary to what the theory forecast, this movement did not lower real interest rates which have consistently remained at extremely high. levels for which there is no historical
To talk about financialization in order to deplore the fact that Capital has speculative investments over productive investments would be very superficial and show a lack of understanding of the real nature of capitalism. The rise of interest rates served as a tool of economic coherence in the redistribution of incomes within each country as well as on the world level. High interest rates were the price to pay so that the US deficit could sustain the growth that delayed the onset of the third generalized recession for several years. In Europe, it has been the key role played by the German economy and currency as a fulcrum of stabilization for the second lever for the upward trend
This world-wide financial totality fulfils specific functions. But there are not only benefits. This is why we have seen bourgeoisies unanimously on the overly high level of interest rates, a discourse which has only partially been followed up by effective action. High interest rates represent an obstacle to recovery and nourish the global monetary instability which led to the collapse of the European Monetary Sistem. The main effect of the rise in interest rates has been to swell budget deficits in Europe and to nourish the growth of public debt which is the counter-part of the de-taxing of financial 2.3 INTER-IMPERIALIST RIVALRIES
The globalization of the capitalist economy is literally unmanageable, but for reasons that are not principally related to the instability of finance and currencies. The main source of the imbalance resides in the historically new fact that this process of globalization puts into direct relation economic regions with very different levels of productivity. This situation is distinct from the internationalization of Capital: the multinationals were, until now, the agents of imperialist metropolises in the dominated countries and instituted oneto-one relationships with them, completed by a system of political domination. With globalization, relationships are multilateral from the very start and the multinational groups have crossed into another stage in internationalization which is leading them little by little to becoming autonomous in relation to their States of origin.
So it is not surprizing to note the appearance of a counter-tendency to the constitution of regional zones, under very diversified forms. What some have called the Triad does not only designate a