Dysfunctional aspects of contemporary financial markets: diagnosis and prescription

First, Veblen’s distinction between industrial and pecuniary employments with special regard to speculation and Keynes´ view of financial markets are introduced. Second, a dominant fundamentalist, market efficiency and a heterodox speculation paradigm of financial markets are distinguished. Third, eleven proposals for financial market reform (e.g. narrow banking) are proposed. Finally, it is asked: What are the methodological consequences of the financial crisis for the prevailing scientific and ideological habits of thought? A more hermeneutical and historical approach is necessary to which Reginald Hansen contributed in his important dissertation on the debate on method.     

Foreign patent monopolies in developing countries: An empirical analysis

This paper presents data on the patenting practice of patent holders resident in industrialized countries in Africa. It is confined to such patents taken out by Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tanzania, and the states whose patent legislation is administered by the Office Africain et Malgache de la Propriété Indus‐trielle (OAMPI): Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Dahomey, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Malagasy Republic, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Upper Volta. These countries account for nearly four‐fifths of the total patents in force andlor applied for in Africa (excluding Rhodesia and South Africa).¹

In particular, the paper tries to throw some light on the importance of developing countries for foreign patenting, the motivation of foreign patent‐holders to take out patents in these countries, the actual transfer of patented technology, and the reasons for the lack of such a transfer. The paper complements the extensive work on foreign technology and foreign patents in Latin America, especially by C. V. Vaitsos [1972] and the Junta del Acuerdo de Cartagena [1971]. It also seeks to test the theoretical assumption that patents in developing countries support the transfer of technology.²