Suchergebnisse

We use the two-country model of the euro area developed by Quint and Rabanal (2014) to study policymaking in the European Monetary Union (EMU). In particular, we focus on strategic interactions: 1) between monetary policy and a common macroprudential authority, and; 2) between an EMU-level monetary authority and regional macroprudential authorities. In the first case, price stability and financial stability are pursued at the EMU level, while in the second case each macroprudential authority adopts region-specific objectives. We compare cooperative equilibria in the simultaneous-move and leadership solutions, each obtained assuming policy discretion. Further, we assess the effects on policy performance of assigning shared objectives across policymakers and of altering the level of importance attached to various policy objectives.

Alan Rabin argues that new Keynesian and new classical macroeconomics, which have dominated the literature and textbooks, have crowded the monetary-disequilibrium hypothesis, or orthodox monetarism, off the intellectual stage. Trying to remedy this imbalance, the author concentrates on what he judges to be the essentials of monetary theory

To those of us who can remember the first world war and the high hopes that followed upon its successful conclusion for the Allies, there must come at times the most anxious apprehensions as to the peace which will follow upon the present one. The saying that we won the first war and lost the peace, annoying though it may be, is yet only too true. And even now, while the second struggle still rages, we may feel uncertainty, not that we shall not win in this war, for that is certain, but that once more the fruits of victory may turn to ashes and again we may lose the peace. We do not quail before the foe in the field; but we may well tremble at the thought of what may lie before us when the struggle is over, when we are faced with the awful task of reconstruction.It is, I apprehend, by no means true to blame everything upon the Peace of Versailles. That settlement was framed with all the wisdom and ingenuity of which the statesmen of that time were capable, and we need not underrate their ability nor doubt their wisdom. It is so easy for anyone to be wise after the event; to find fault and point out the mistakes that were made. Wisdom lies in profiting by the mistakes of the past and determining not to commit similar ones a second time. I have nothing to say of the territorial provisions of the Treaty, because I do not think that they were the cause of the subsequent breakdown. Probably they were as good as the ingenuity of their authors could devise. But rather I would say the real mistake lay in an utter failure to grasp the one essential fact that the monetary set-up of the world was in complete chaos, a chaos more complete and devastating because bankers and finance ministers were still bemused with the preoccupation of the pre-war monetary theory.

Examines the European Monetary System experience and whether it can be applied to the International Monetary System. Addresses the relationship between the ERM currencies and the US dollar. There have been suggestions for a 'common dollar policy'. However, advance agreement on a common policy is difficult to imagine, in view of the differing interests of individual ERM countries, as well as the United States. (Abstract amended)

According to theories of evolution, species evolve according to survival imperatives generated by their physical environments. Traits are selected and rejected based on their adaptability to the structures of the physical world in which these species live. Biological differences mirror differences in climate; the acutely developed senses of many species have adapted either for capturing prey or eluding predators, and so forth. So too in economic systems do we observe changes in human behaviour modes and policies that suggest adaptation. With respect to money, scholars continue to look for the most important adaptation mechanisms to explain the evolution of international monetary relations. What was once the preserve of strictly economic analysis has now become open ground for a wider array of social scientific analyses. In only a few short decades the study of monetary relations has developed into a more fully multi- and interdisciplinary enterprise. The four books reviewed here represent some of the latest attempts at constructing a broader social scientific explanation of monetary history. These valuable works complement one another in filling gaps in the literature on a complex and more diverse adaptation of monetary relations. Above all they stand as impressive political economies of monetary relations. Moure and Kettell concentrate on specific cases of monetary policy transformation in the interwar period, while Flandreau et al. and Obstfeld and Taylor cover a broader evolutionary timeline. The value of the contributions lies in several factors.