Introduction

In the event of 2007 financial crisis and its prolonged aftermath, it has become increasingly evident that macroeconomic mechanisms and financial institutions, as well as macroeconomic theory and policy relevant to them, are not well tuned to, or in step with, rapidly changing global economic environments. National economies, developed, emerging and developing alike, are ever more closely interconnected through market and financial integration, fast information transmission and human resource mobility, restructuring of the global division of labor, and so on. Macroeconomics, as well as financial economics, appear urged to re-examine, and possibly re-orient, its accepted premises, research foci, analytical method, and even underlying philosophy, in order to understand the nature of problems that the global economy is facing, improve on economic policy and prudent regulations, and reform global and national economic institutions. Understandably, meeting this challenge would be hardly easy because of the complexity of the issues involved.