Asian economies strengthened their monetary and currency management after the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998, and came through the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 relatively well. Nevertheless, the recent global crisis has presented new challenges. This book develops recommendations for monetary and currency policy in Asian economies aimed at promoting macroeconomic and financial stability in an environment of global economic shocks and volatile capital flows. Monetary and Currency Policy Management in Asia draws lessons from crises and makes concrete macroeconomic policy recommendations aimed at minimizing the impacts of an economic and financial downturn, and setting the stage for an early return to sustainable growth. The focus is on short-term measures related to the cycle. The three main areas addressed are: monetary policy measures, both conventional and unconventional, to achieve both macroeconomic and financial stability; exchange rate policy and foreign exchange reserve management, including the potential for regional cooperation to stabilize currency movements; and ways to ease the constraints on policy resulting from the so-called 'impossible trinity' of fixed exchange rates, open capital accounts and independent monetary policy. This is one of the first books since the global financial crisis to specifically and comprehensively address the implications of the crisis for monetary and currency policy in emerging market economies, especially in Asia. Presenting a broad menu of policy options for financial reform and regulation, the book will be of great interest to finance experts and policy makers in the region as well as academics and researchers of financial and Asian economics and also economic development. Contributors: J. Aizenman, M.D. Chinn, A. Filardo, S.-i. Fukuda, H. Genberg, H. Ito, M. Kawai, S. Kim, Y. Kon, P.J. Morgan, I. Patnaik, A. Shah, S. Takagi, D.Y. Yang, F. Zhai A Joint Publication of the Asian Development Bank Institute and Edward Elgar Publishing

For commodity traders and portfolio managers—a practical, hands-on guide to profiting in today’s growing international cross rate markets. Cross rates trading is growing increasingly popular, fueled in no small part by banks and multinationals seeking creative strategies for hedging currency risk and speculators seeking profits from interest rate plays and exchange rate moves. Trading Currency Cross Rates is the passkey to this vastly profitable financial sector. Written for the experienced trader moving into the currency futures and foreign exchange cash markets, as well as for the corporate portfolio manager seeking to limit company exposure, this professional guide covers the fundamentals of today’s cross rates markets and delivers the step-by-step techniques needed to trade cross rates successfully. Packed with charts and tables that apply over a broad range of international markets and currencies, the guide:

• Explains what cross rates are and profiles the different types that currently are traded
• Shows whether to trade on an agency or principal basis, and how to avoid counterparty failure
• Covers the building blocks of currency valuation and the best methods for forecasting moves in currency cross rates
• Reveals how to profitably trade exotic cross rates among currencies from the Pacific Rim and Middle East
• Explains how to cross over to the growing interbank currency market, and which fundamental and technical analysis techniques specifically apply to it
• Discusses how to easily adapt any current trading system and its input to the profitable cash markets

In the past thirty years the financial sector has seen unparalleled growth and has exerted increased economic and political influence and significance. This growth has come hand-in-hand with several serious economic crises and greater monetary instability. Set against this background, this important book offers a wide ranging, critical analysis of the financial sector. Each of the chapters explores a different theme under the general topic of money, finance and capitalist development. The performance of capitalist economies is first analysed from a Keynesian evolutionary perspective before moving to a focus on the East Asian crisis and asking the question of whether the global neo-liberal regime can survive in Asia. The rapid growth of the financial sector has involved, amongst other changes, a dramatic growth in the sale of financial derivatives. This activity is examined and found to increase uncertainty rather than decrease risk. The nature of money, and in particular the nature of endogenous credit money, is thoroughly discussed, and the political economy of central banks and their operations is reviewed. The book concludes with a critical assessment of the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment. Money, Finance and Capitalist Development will be of great value and interest to financial and monetary economists, as well as students and scholars of macroeconomics and finance.

Digital currencies are a fairly new phenomenon brought about by the spectacular rise of the internet. While Bitcoin is the most famous, there are numerous other digital currencies-from Amazon Coin to Zetacoin. Beyond Bitcoin explores the economic forces underlying the design of their features and their potential. Halaburda and Sarvary argue that digital currencies are best understood by considering the economic incentives driving their creators and users. The authors present a framework that will allow systemic analysis of this dynamic environment and support further discussion of the design of digital currencies' features and the competition in the market.

We Are Better Than This fundamentally reframes budget debates in the United States. Author Edward D. Kleinbard explains how the public's preoccupation with tax policy alone has obscured any understanding of government's ability to complement the private sector through investment and insurance programs that enhance the general welfare and prosperity of our society at large. He argues that when we choose how government should spend and tax, we open a window into our "fiscal soul," because those choices are the means by which we express the values we cherish and the regard in which we hold our fellow citizens. Though these values are being diminished by short-sighted decisions to starve government, strategic government spending can directly make citizens happier, healthier, and even wealthier. Expertly combining the latest economic research with his insider knowledge of the budget process into a simple yet compelling narrative, he unmasks the tax mythologies and false arguments that too often dominate contemporary discourse about budget policies. Large quantities of comparative data are succinctly distilled to situate the United States among its peer countries, so that readers can judge for themselves whether contemporary budget choices really reflect our aspirational fiscal soul. Kleinbard's presentation takes a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on economics, finance, law, political science and moral philosophy. He uniquely weaves economic research and moral philosophy together by emphasizing our welfare, not just our national income, and by contrasting the actual beliefs of Adam Smith, a great moral philosopher, with the cartoon version of the man presented by proponents of the most extreme forms of private market triumphalism.

This book focuses on the concepts and applications of risk-based asset allocation. Markowitz's traditional approach to asset allocation suffers from serious drawbacks when implemented. These mainly arise from the estimation risk associated with the necessary input the most critical being expected returns. With the financial crisis, there has been an increasing interest in asset allocation approaches that don't need expected returns as input, known as risk-based approaches. The book provides an analysis of the different solutions that fit this description: the equal-weighting approach, the global minimum-variance approach, the most diversified portfolio approach and the risk parity approach. In addition to a theoretical discussion of these, it presents practical applications in different investment environments. Three different evaluation dimensions are considered to put these approaches to the test: financial efficiency, diversification and portfolio stability.

The New World of Treasury Functions.

The Treasurer's Responsibility for Risk Management.

Problems in Risk Control: How the Japanese Face the Challenge.

Transacting Foreign Exchange Deals.

Foreign Exchange Operations.

Swaps, Hedging, Bond Dealing, and Currency Management.

Dealing in Currencies.

West European Currency, Political Union, and the Financial Infrastructure.

The ECU, the German Mark, and the Dollar.

Economic Planning and the East European Transformation.

Commodities and Futures Trading.

Dealing in Options.

Arbitrage, Spread Management, and Gap Analysis.

A Financial Advisor System Project.

Looking Forward: Treasury Operations in the Year 2000.

Index.

The book examines the role that the private sector can play in reducing poverty and marginality in Ethiopia by providing improved agricultural inputs to marginalized poor farmers. By creating a marginality map the author analyzes who and where the marginalized poor are. Data from a household survey about purchasing behavior, demand and needs indicates that this group can be a promising market segment for the private sector if adequate business models are applied. Yet, an analysis of the institutions governing agricultural input markets shows that investments by the private sector are discouraged by de facto monopolies of the government on crucial elements of the different supply chains, including seed breeding, fertilizer imports and finance.

Music Business and the Experience Economy is the first book on the music business in Australasia from an academic perspective. In a cross-disciplinary approach, the contributions deal with a wide-range of topics concerning the production, distribution and consumption of music in the digital age. The interrelationship of legal, aesthetic and economic aspects in the production of music in Australasia is also highlighted as well as the emergence of new business models, the role of P2P file sharing, and the live music sector. In addition, the impact of the digital revolution on music experience and valuation, the role of music for tourism and for branding, and last but not least the developments of higher music education, are discussed from different perspectives.

This book presents the comparative evaluation of international and industrial factors affecting the financial condition of enterprises. In the theoretical part, the results of previous research on the occurrence of the country and industry effect in the financial health of companies are reviewed. The aim of the empirical study is to determine such factors - national or industrial ones - that have a greater impact on the corporate performance in the selected European Union countries. Corporate performance is measured and described with the use of a large set of fundamental ratios. Corporate performance is therefore treated as a more complex matter influenced by such aspects as profitability, liquidity, working capital and solvency. The book especially analyses the importance of non-public companies of all sizes, which is also rare as current research focuses mainly on public companies due to the data constraints.

Widely considered the crowning achievement in the history of international monetary relations, the classical gold standard (1880-1914) has long been treated like a holy relic. Its veneration, however, has done more to obscure than to reveal the actual nature of the era's monetary system. In The Anatomy of an International Monetary Regime, Giulio M. Gallarotti addresses the nature of the classical gold standard in its international context, offering the first comprehensive and systematic treatment of the subject.
Three fundamental questions are essential to the discussion: How did the regime originate? How did it work? Why did it persist? Gallarotti uses an interdisciplinary approach that draws upon politics, economics, and ideology to explain the answers. He challenges traditional assumptions about the period, arguing that cooperation among nations or central banks was not a principal factor in either the origin or stability of the system, and that neither the British state nor the Bank of England were the leaders or managers of the gold standard. Rather, a decentralized process involving the status of gold, industrialization and economic development, the politics of gold, and liberal economic ideology provided converging incentives for starting and maintaining the system.
Gallarotti's study presents the most comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination available of the nature of monetary relations in the four decades before World War I. His important, revisionist view will alter the way we think about a crucial period in the growth of the international monetary system. It will be essential reading for scholars and students of economic history and policy.

This book clarifies several ambiguous arguments and claims in finance and the theory of the firm. It also serves as a bridge between derivatives, corporate finance and the theory of the firm. In addition to mathematical derivations and theories, the book also uses anecdotes and numerical examples to explain some unconventional concepts. The main arguments of the book are: (1) the ownership of the firm is not a valid concept, and firms' objectives are determined by entrepreneurs who can innovate to earn excess profits; (2) the Modigliani-Miller capital structure irrelevancy proposition is a restatement of the Coase theorem, and changes in the firm's debt-equity ratio will not affect equity-holders' wealth (welfare), and equity-holders' preferences toward risk (or variance) are irrelevant; (3) all firms' resources are options, and every asset is both a European call and a put option for any other asset; and (4) that a first or residual claim between debt and equity is non-existent while the first claim among fixed-income assets can actually affect the market values of these assets.

In order to measure the dynamics of flow-performance relationships for a multi-domicile sample, Simon Weiler applies existing flow-performance research methods to a broad set of European equity (UCITS) funds and proves that major findings (performance-chasing behaviour and a convex flow-performance relationship) also hold true in a cross-border market environment.

In this invaluable book, Martin Fase, a notable academic and practitioner, draws together his most important contributions to monetary economics over two decades, using empirical evidence to assert his unique style in designing monetary policy. One of the main themes of Professor Fase's work, covered in the first part of the book, is the empirical analysis of the demand for money. For traditional monetary aggregates and Divisia aggregates the author investigates the dynamics, stability and determinants of money demand on a sectoral, national and Europe-wide level. The second part of the book uses empirical evidence to address a variety of monetary issues, including the system approach to money demand, the demand for bank loans, payment patterns and the demand for banknotes and coins. These chapters support the author's assertion that both the aggregate and disaggregate analyses of money demand are necessary for the design of a successful monetary policy in a European Monetary Union. On Money and Credit in Europe will be of great value to scholars and practitioners of monetary and financial economics, the economics of European integration and money and banking.

Understanding economics has never been easier! Want to learn more about Economics but simply don't know where to start? Don't worry - DK has got you covered! Simply Economics is the perfect introduction to the subject for those who are short of time but hungry for knowledge. Covering more than 120 key economic terms and ideas from scarcity to stocks and shares, this excellent economics books explains the key concept more clearly than ever before. Organized by major themes - Foundations of economics, Economies in action, Choices and Consequences, Markets, International Trade, and Finance - entries demystify the groundbreaking ideas of famous economists from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes, Joseph Schumpeter to Milton Friedman, explaining the essentials of each key economics school and theory. Dive straight in to discover: - All of the basic covering all of the different schools of economics - Simple, easy-to-understand graphics help to explain more than 120 key economics concepts - An easy-to-read accessible approach to economics perfect for complete beginners A stylish addition to any bookshelf, with playful designs and informative text, this is is a must-have volume for anyone interested in economics, business, finance, or politics as well as economic students who want a quick and easy reference to the subject. So whether you are studying economics at school or college, or simply want a jargon-free overview of the subject, this essential guide is packed with everything you need to understand the basics quickly and easily

Financial capital, whether mediated through the financial market or Foreign Direct Investment has been a key factor in European economic growth. This book examines the interaction between European and global financial integration and analyses the dynamics of the monetary sector and the real economy in Europe. The key analytical focus is on the theoretical and empirical dynamics of financial markets in Europe, however, it also provides regional case studies of key institutional developments and lessons from foreign direct investment. There is a broad range of findings for Central, Eastern and Western Europe as well as EU Partner Countries. Crucially the analysis includes new approaches and options for solving the transatlantic banking crisis and suggests policy innovations for a world with unstable financial markets.

The Future of the Euro is an attempt by political economists to analyze the fundamental causes of the euro crisis, determine how it can be fixed, and consider what likely futures lie ahead for the currency. The book makes three interrelated arguments that emphasize the primacy of political over economic factors. First, the 'euro problem' is discussed as the result of the single currency's fundamental lack of institutional embeddedness, insofar as its original design omitted three 'forgotten unions' alongside of monetary union: a financial and banking union, mutually supporting institutions of fiscal union and economic government, and a political union holding similar legitimacy to the nation-state. Second, the 'euro experience' shows how the euro's unfinished design led to economic divergence - quietly altering the existing distribution of economic and political power within Europe prior to the crisis - which in turn determined the EU's crisis response. The book highlights how the euro's four most important members - Germany, France, Italy and Spain - each changed once they adopted the euro, why the crisis affected them so differently, and how each has since struggled to live with the commitments the euro necessitates. Third, the book examines three possible 'euro futures' through the lens of the politics of its reluctant leader Germany; through the lens of the EU's capacity to 'move forward' through crises; and through the geopolitical lens of the international monetary system. The book concludes that any successful long-term solution to the euro's predicament needs to start with the political foundations of markets.

A careful basic theoretical and econometric analysis of the factors determining the real exchange rates of Canada, the U.K., Japan, France and Germany with respect to the United States is conducted. The resulting conclusion is that real exchange rates are almost entirely determined by real factors relating to growth and technology such as oil and commodity prices, international allocations of world investment across countries, and underlying terms of trade changes. Unanticipated money supply shocks, calculated in five alternative ways have virtually no effects. A Blanchard-Quah VAR analysis also indicates that the effects of real shocks predominate over monetary shocks by a wide margin. The implications of these facts for the conduct of monetary policy in countries outside the U.S. are then explored leading to the conclusion that all countries, to avoid exchange rate overshooting, have tended to automatically follow the same monetary policy as the United States. The history of world monetary policy is reviewed along with the determination of real exchange rates within the Euro Area.

Exchange Rate Economics: Theories and Evidence is the second edition of Floating Exchange Rates: Theories and Evidence and builds on the successful content and structure of the previous edition. It has been comprehensively updated and expanded to include additional literature on the determination of both fixed and floating exchange rates.

Core topics covered include:

• the purchasing power parity hypotheses and the PPP puzzle
• the monetary and portfolio-balance approaches to exchange rates
• new open economy macroeconomics approach to exchange rates
• the determination of exchange rates in target zone models and speculative attack models.

Exchange Rate Economics: Theories and Evidence also includes extensive discussion of recent econometric work on exchange rates with a particular focus on equilibrium exchange rates and measuring exchange rate misalignment, as well as discussion on the non-fundamentals-based approaches to exchange rate behaviour, such as the market microstructure approach.

The book will appeal to academics and postgraduate students with an interest in all aspects of international finance and will also be of interest to practitioners interested in issues of equilibrium exchange rates and the forecastability of currencies in terms of macroeconomic fundamentals.

This book, written by an international team of economists, develops concrete, country specific alternatives to inflation targeting, the dominant policy framework of central bank policy that focuses on keeping inflation in the low single digits to the virtual exclusion of other key goals such as employment creation, poverty reduction and sustainable development. The book includes thematic chapters, including analyses of class attitudes toward inflation and unemployment and the gender impacts of restrictive monetary policy. Other chapters propose improved monetary frameworks for Argentina, Brazil, India, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Turkey, and Vietnam. Policy frameworks that are explored include employment targeting, and targeting a stable and competitive real exchange rate. The authors also show that to reach a larger number of targets, including higher employment and stable inflation, central banks must use a larger number of instruments, including capital management techniques. This volume offers concrete, socially valuable alternatives that economists, policy makers, students and interested laypeople should consider before adopting one size fits all, often inadequate, policies that have become a virtual policy making fad.

The authors of this book argue that post-war fiscal and monetary policies in the U.S. are prone to more frequent and more destabilizing domestic and international financial crises. So, in the aftermath of the one that erupted in 2008, they propose that now we are sleepwalking into another, which under the prevailing institutional circumstances could develop into a worldwide financial Armageddon. Thinking ahead of such a calamity, this book presents for the first time a model of democratic governance with privately produced money based on the case of Athens in Classical times, and explains why, if it is conceived as a benchmark for reference and adaptation, it may provide an effective way out from the dreadful predicament that state managed fiat money holds for the stability of Western-type democracies and the international financial system. As the U.S. today, Athens at that time reached the apex of its military, economic, political, cultural, and scientific influence in the world. But Athens triumphed through different approaches to democracy and fundamentally different fiscal and monetary policies than the U.S. Thus the readers will have the opportunity to learn about these differences and appreciate the potential they offer for confronting the challenges contemporary democracies face under the leadership of the U.S. The book will find audiences among academics, university students, and researchers across a wide range of fields and subfields, as well as legislators, fiscal and monetary policy makers, and economic and financial consultants.

On tax day, April 15, 2010, hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets with signs demanding lower taxes on the richest one percent. But why? Rich people have plenty of political influence. Why would they need to publicly demonstrate for lower taxes-and why would anyone who wasn't rich join the protest on their behalf?
Isaac William Martin shows that such protests long predate the Tea Party of our own time. Ever since the Sixteenth Amendment introduced a Federal income tax in 1913, rich Americans have protested new public policies that they thought would threaten their wealth. But while historians have taught us much about the conservative social movements that reshaped the Republican Party in the late 20th century, the story of protest movements explicitly designed to benefit the wealthy is still little known. Rich People's Movements is the first book to tell that story, tracking a series of protest movements that arose to challenge an expanding welfare state and progressive taxation. Drawing from a mix of anti-progressive ideas, the leaders of these movements organized scattered local constituencies into effective campaigns in the 1920s, 1950s, 1980s, and our own era. Martin shows how protesters on behalf of the rich appropriated the tactics used by the Left-from the Populists and Progressives of the early twentieth century to the feminists and anti-war activists of the 1950s and 1960s. He explores why the wealthy sometimes cut secret back-room deals and at other times protest in the public square. He also explains why people who are not rich have so often rallied to their cause.
For anyone wanting to understand the anti-tax activists of today, including notable defenders of wealth inequality like the Koch brothers, the historical account in Rich People's Movements is an essential guide.

By engaging in an ethnography of the social text of German, European and USA monetary affairs, this book introduces a new analytical framework that will enable practitioners and academics, particularly within sociology, economics, political economy, and political science, to gain a clear understanding of the role of culture in central banking.

The combined collapse of Iceland's three largest banks in 2008 is the third largest bankruptcy in history and the largest banking system collapse suffered by any country in modern economic history, relative to GDP. How could tiny Iceland build a banking system in less than a decade that proportionally exceeded Switzerland's? Why did the bankers decide to grow the system so fast? How did businesses tunnel money out of the banking system? And why didn't anybody stop them? Bringing Down the Banking System answers these questions. Gudrun Johnsen, Senior Researcher with Iceland's Special Investigation Commission, tells the riveting story of the rise and fall of the Icelandic banking system, describes the commission's findings on the damaging effects of holding company cross-ownership, and explains what we can learn from it all.