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What has happened to inflation targeting after a quarter of the century? The popular regime of monetary policy has experienced considerable changes. Central banks of developed economies received the double mandate; there were elements of monetary targeting, there was departure from an interest rate as the main instrument of monetary policy; innovations in communication policy are devoted to the disclosure of the forecast of future interest rate and alternative inflation estimates. There are deviations of the actual inflation from an inflation target, de facto moving from inflation targeting to hybrid regimes, and manipulation of inflation target in developing economies.

All the first central banks were established in the form of private joint-stock companies. After World War II the majority of them were nationalized. However the small group of central banks continues to remain in private property. Though their financial activities do not differ from other central banks, private property has an essential influence on corporate governance.

The theory of optimum currency areas was created by three famous economists, R. Mandell, R. McKinnon and P. Kenen. They identified characteristics that potential participants of a currency area should possess in order to make it feasible to surrender the independent monetary policy and the adjustment of an exchange rate of a national currency. We consider the historical development of the optimum currency areas theory and review factors which led to renewal of the theory in the early 1990s. The article focuses on some important links between historic facts, development of the economic theory, and public policy.

Russian government has prepared the package of measures to help the country's financial system maintain financial stability. The paper discusses the state measures and formulates the propositions of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP). The most important ones include coordination of regulators, unsecured refinancing and refinancing of external debts, guarantees of interbank loans, budget deposits in banks. The author analyzes subordinated loans for Russian banks from the state budget, nationalization of several banks and the future of government intervention in the stock market. Special attention is paid to the Deposit Insurance, the development of national credit rating system and the official information policy. The author believes that state measures need the following fine-tuning.

Can the Russian ruble become an international reserve currency? By identifying the key determinants of the international status of national currency this paper estimates possibilities of the ruble. The significant determinants include: the size of the home country, inflation rate, exchange rate volatility, the size of the relevant home financial market, and network externality. The author believes that several factors are in favor of the Russian currency, in particular the turnover and liquidity of foreign exchange market, the size of foreign trade, the development of international market of debt securities in Russian ruble. The paper discusses some important policy implications of internationalization of the ruble for the Bank of Russia and the Russian economy in general.

While early macroeconomists were engineers trying to solve practical problems, modern macroeconomists have focused on developing mathematic tools and establishing models. These analytic instruments, however, have been slow to find their way into practical applications. This paper reviews the influence of modern macroeconomics on realities of monetary policy. The author concludes that the effect of formalization of macroeconomic theory on central banking is close to zero.

The number of classical banks in the world has reduced. In the majority of countries the number of banks does not exceed 200. The uniqueness of the Russian banking sector is that in this respect it takes the third place in the world after the USA and Germany. The paper reviews the conclusions of the economic theory about the optimum structure of the banking market. The empirical analysis shows that the number of banks in a country is influenced by the size of its territory, population number and GDP per capita. Our econometric estimate is that the equilibrium number of banks in Russia should be in a range of 180-220 units.

This paper attempts to survey the history of inflation. The author finds that the definition and nature of inflation develop over time. Among other things, he reviews inflation during the period of classical gold standard, first examples of hyperinflation, and macroeconomic characteristics of inflation in XX century.

In 1973, the US Treasury Secretary informed the IMF that the United States had moved from system of fixed exchange rates to flexible exchange rates. The fall of the Bretton Woods system became the culmination of the campaign led by M. Friedman during the previous quarter of a century. This publication studies the process by which Friedman's case for flexible exchange rates was transformed from economic "heresy" to the majority academic opinion. The primary focus of the paper is political economy of organization and developing of the intellectual and political forces which undermined the Bretton Woods system.