Session 2, Spring 2026 CPE Money and Finance Seminar Series
Liquidity Traps and Colonial Echoes: Unpacking the Political Economy of Liquidity in the Global South
How do global liquidity flows and exchange rate regimes quietly strangle economic sovereignty? In this Zoom seminar, Ndongo Sylla and Annina Kaltenbrunner adress these issues of the political economy of liquidity in the global South. Dr. Sylla will speak about monetary subordination, using the CFA franc—a living relic of French West Africa’s colonial past—where fixed parity and guaranteed convertibility lock nations into monetary dependence to elaborate his concept of chains of monetary dependency. Dr. Kaltenbrunner then turns to currency hierarchies, the exchange rate regimes they bring about and the impact of pension fund investments into emerging markets in this context. Together, they reveal a striking convergence: whether through legalized subordination or market-driven pressure, exchange rate mechanisms and foreign financial flows systematically shrink policy space for health, employment, and development. Based on these cases, they will address what genuine monetary sovereignty could look like.
Speakers:
Annina Kaltenbrunner, Professor of Global Economics, Leeds University Business School
Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa Region Director for Research and Policy, International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs)
