Chapter 1: 1.

What specific advances in information-processing technologies, and what specific government deregulation of financial markets have occurred since the 1970s? Therefore, what specific expansion and globalization of financial markets has occurred? (A few key facts, please, in each case.) The specific advances in information-process technologies have occurred since the 1970s are: electronic and regular mail service telephones computers fax machines image processing devices communication satellites fiber optics the internet The expanding use and performance of these information-processing technologies have created better opportunities in finance. All these information-process technologies improve communication. Changes in communications have always affected the structure of finance, but these developments of the last few decades were responsible for the truly global nature of todays financial markets. As participants used these new technologies and networks, linkages were formed between various national and international sub-economy financial markets. New international opportunities have occurred for centuries, but only recently has interdependence become so pervasive to merit the word global. Besides the technologies to improve communications, countless other new technologies which enhanced the opportunities in boundary-less electronic finance include automatic transfer machines (ATMs), electronic points of sale, telephone banking, interactive screen communications between financial intermediaries and their wholesale and retail customers, ever more innovative debit and credit and smart cards, and even electronic wallets. The globalization of financial markets has also been encouraged by government regulation. Governments began rushing toward financial market deregulation and internationalization in order to capture a large share of the new profitability for their own money centers, and in order to attract new international funds into their own economies. Policymakers removed ceilings on interest rates, reduced taxes and brokerage commissions on financial transactions, gave foreign financial firms greater access to the home financial markets, allowed increased privatization and securitization of assets, and took other steps which allowed money to move more freely and profitably between international and national markets.