The principal message of this book is that international financial enterprises must be re-oriented towards funding productive activities rather than potentially destabilizing speculation. The effects of financial sector operations are addressed with serious warnings that the dangers of speculative destabilization are increasing as regulatory and market discipline gradually weakens. This work examines the ways in which national economies, especially those of industrialized countries, are affected by the operations of international financial markets. Although these markets provide productive funding, there is also much speculative trading in stocks and currencies which can cause booms, slumps and hinder recovery. The authors advocate entrepreneurial co-ordination by productive enterprises for balanced and stable growth, with reduced risks of financial crises and recessions. INDICE -Economic structures and finance, Gavin Boyd -From over-lending to crisis, to a new international financial regime? lessons from the 1990s, Pier Carlo Padoan -Analytical perspectives on the varieties of capitalism and structural interdependencies - implications for multinational business finance, Alain Verbeke -Financial institutions and financial markets - the emergence of a new class of universal banks, Jordi Canals -International banking regulation, Maximilian J.B. Hall, George G. Kaufman -Technology, productivity and structural change, Sarianna M. Lundan Cracks in the facade - American economic and financial structures after the boom, William R. Emmons, Frank A. Schmid -Industry and finance in the EU - integration, enlargement and economic performance, Paul Brenton -Japanese economic structures and finance - characteristics and causes of the current slowdown, Thomas F. Cargill, Elliott Parker -Real economies and financial sectors in industrializing countries, Gavin Boyd -International structural co-operation and financial architecture, Gavin Boyd