Derivatives and Development : A Political Economy of Global Finance, Farming, and Poverty

Breger Bush argues that derivatives markets work in the development context as engines of inequality and instability, aggravating poverty among those they are purported to help and highlighting some of the dangers of neoliberal globalization for the poor. An analysis of an increasingly popular set of policy proposals coming from international development organizations and non-profits which suggest that developing country farmers should be hedging their considerable exposure to price risk on derivatives markets thereby securing their incomes from the vagaries of global commodity markets. Derivatives and Development is an analysis of an increasingly popular set of policy proposals coming from international development organizations and non-profits which suggest that developing country farmers should be hedging their considerable exposure to price risk on derivatives markets (futures and options markets), thereby securing their incomes from the vagaries of global commodity markets. It systematically and critically analyzes derivatives-based price risk management and the implications of derivatives advocacy for farmers. The author focuses upon small farmers in the Global South, a global community that currently numbers over one billion people. Small farmers in the Global South are among those groups most likely to be poor today, and are historically among those most at risk when agricultural markets are liberalized Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction....Pages 1-11 Derivatives and Development: Contemporary Applications....Pages 13-49 Coffee, Derivatives, and Income Security: Theory and Practice....Pages 51-100 Coffee, Derivatives, and Poverty: A Global Commodity Chain Approach....Pages 101-150 Derivatives and the Politics of Alternatives....Pages 151-184 Conclusions....Pages 185-194 Back Matter....Pages 195-244