Finans dünyası çok hızlı bir şekilde değişmektedir. Değişimi güdüleyen başlıca güçler ise yeni teknolojilerin gelişimi ve dünya çapında finansal bağlantıların artmasıdır. İletişim maliyetlerindeki azalma, bu değişimlerin birçoğunu motive etmiştir.

Yıllardır nakit para yerine başka ödeme yöntemleri (çek, kredi kartı gibi) kullanılmaktadır. Fakat şimdi İnternet üzerinde yapılan elektronik ticaretin ortaya çıkması ile bu yöntemlerin yeterince etkin olmadıkları görünmektedir. Bu nedenle yeni elektronik ödeme sistemlerinin geliştirilmesi gerekmektedir. Tüketicilere, İnternet üzerinden güvenli alışveriş yapmaları için çeşitli elektronik ödeme sistemleri sunulmaktadır. Ayrıca bazı modeller, banknot ve bozukluk para için direkt bir ikame olan ve akıllı kartlar üzerinde saklanan sanal para sağlamaktadırlar.

Sanal para ile gerçekleştirilen ödeme sistemlerinin gelişiminin sunduğu müthiş fırsatların yanında, kara para aklama, vergiden kaçınma ve senyoraj kayıpları gibi birçok yasal sorunları da beraberinde getirmektedir.

In this book, we attempt to make a comparative evaluation of modern macroeconomic schools: Monetarism and New Classical School based on the Classical System that envisage automatic full employment or natural rate of unemployment (NRU) equilibrium (AFNE or ANRUE) vs. New Keynesian and Post-Keynesian Economics based on the Keynesian System which gives unemployment equilibrium (UNE) or non-automatic NRU equilibrium (NANRUE) due to insufficiency of aggregate demand.

In order to determine which school is relevant, first the basic assumptions of these systems are compared: i) rational vs. adjusted vs. heterogeneous expectations, ii) existence of perfect competition in all markets leading to flexibility of prices and wages vs. imperfect competition giving rise to rigidities, and iii) presence or lack of coordination between markets.

In the final phase of our evaluations the performance of the developed economies are surveyed to establish whether we meet with AFNE or ANRUE or else UNE or NANRUE; and whether policy prescriptions devised by respective schools solve or alleviate the problem at hand when implemented.

Our investigations point out that New Keynesian and Post-Keynesian schools are more relevant compared to Monetarism and New Classical School. The choice between New Keynesian and Post-Keynesian Economics, however, is more difficult to make although New Keynesian Economics seems more widespread than Post-Keynesian Economics. Objectively, Post-Keynesian assumptions seem more realistic; normatively, however, New Keynesian stands seems more fit to the present day move towards globalization.

The Belt and Road Initiative is the most ambitious project in the 21^st century. Its main goals are infrastructure development, financial integration, people to people connectivity. Developing countries which desperately need infrastructure upgrade welcomed Chinese investments, finding an opportunity to be connected to global economy. Although economic and political consequences are discussed in the literature, the spatial consequences of the Belt and Road Initiative are neglected. The Belt and Road Initiative lays out six main economic corridors, reconfiguring the space across the continents. Eurasia, where three of six economic corridors pass through, is mostly affected by this spatial process. The countries in Eurasia are linked with corridors on which dry ports, special economic zones, and free trade areas are set up. This signifies new spatial characteristics in Eurasia.

Economic cybercrime is one of the unwelcomed consequences of unprecedented intrusion of the Internet in our daily lives. Academic interest in understanding the causes and adverse impacts of cybercrime is growing. Opportunity perspective, which perceives individuals’ daily routines and lifestyles as the primary facilitator of victimization, has been widely applied as a theoretical and conceptual framework in cybercrime victimization research. However, this approach put the responsibility of the victimization on victims explicitly, which hampers the application of crime prevention and reduction efforts. This book presents the Contextual Vulnerabilities approach based on the significant findings of a doctoral study conducted at Durham University in the United Kingdom. Contextual vulnerabilities approach posits that cybercrime victimization is the outcome of the confluence of contextual factors that are mostly beyond victims’ control. This approach presumes that controlling individual (micro-level), macro-level and socio-cultural vulnerabilities may prevent cybercrime victimization. Though the preliminary goal of this book is to provide a new theoretical perspective to scholars researching victimization in cyberspace, I hope the wider audience would find it informative.