Liquidity Traps and Colonial Echoes: Unpacking the Political Economy of Liquidity in the Global South
Session 2, Spring 2026 CPE Money and Finance Seminar Series
April 27, 2026
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)
This presentation sought to answer the question, "How do global liquidity flows and exchange rate regimes quietly strangle economic sovereignty?"Ndongo Sylla and Annina Kaltenbrunner adress these issues of the political economy of liquidity in the global South.
Sylla spoke 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.
Kaltenbrunner turned 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.
