This work examines the role money and debt play in our economy. It shows why we went from the gold standard to fiat money, why that led to increasing inflation up to 1980, and why inflation has receded since 1980. In addition, it explains how today's economic problems arose, why governments cannot solve those problems, and where those problems will lead us. Challenging conventional wisdom, the author suggests that high real interest rates in the 1980s reduced business' ability to profit by expanding productive capacity and reduced the attractiveness of borrowing for consumption. The resulting drive to buy assets instead, such as stocks and real estate, caused rapidly rising prices in those areas. The author foresees a depression resulting from these economic forces--one which governments will be unable to prevent.

This work is unique for it neither espouses any theory nor uses inductive or deductive reasoning; rather, it observes. Its observations of how economic sectors, central banks, governments, business, and consumers can and do use money and debt are trenchant and alarming.

This volume assesses the current state of play for Middle East and North African countries, in the light of wider work on inflation targeting, and provides lessons from the evolution of monetary policy in Europe.

The book analyses the establishment of De Nederlandsche Bank and its early development as a case study to test competing theories on the historical development of central banking. It is shown that the establishment of DNB can be explained by both the fiscal theory and the financial stability theory. Later development makes clear that the financial stability role of DNB prevailed. DNBs bank notes were not forced onto the public and competition was fierce. A prudent and independent stance was necessary to be able to play its intended role. This meant that DNB played a modest role in the Amsterdam money market until 1852. By 1852 it had established itself to become the central bank. By then its bank notes had become generally accepted and it could start to operate as a reserve bank. Also the market context had changed dramatically, its competitors had been driven out of the market and several credit institutions had become customers of DNB. "On the occasion of the Nederlandsche Bank's 200th Anniversary, it is good to have a new, and an extremely good, history of its founding and first fifty years of operation. The only previous account of this period of the DNB's history was legalistic and did not sufficiently place the Banks development in its wider context. Uittenbogaard's book provides a much broader, and better, story of the personnel, economics, and finance of the DNB at this juncture." - Charles Goodhart, LSE.

This book puts forward the view that rational expectations have a key role in formulating economic policy and in determining economic activity, prices, interest rates, and employment rates. Arguing that economic policy crucially depends upon expectations about future government policies, the author supports his thesis by drawing on monetary theory as well as on the actual experiences of several post-World War II countries.

Approximately two years ago, the Guido Carli Association charged a group of distinguished economists with studying various aspects of the international monetary system and proposing ways to improve it. The studies were presented at a conference in Florence, Italy, on June 19, 1998 and their edited versions are published in this volume. Ideas for the Future of the International Monetary System consists of two parts: Part I contains the studies commissioned by the Carli Association - those by Dominick Salvatore; Koichi Hamada; Forrest Capie; Michele Fratianni, Andreas Hauskrecht and Aurelio Maccario; Jurgen von Hagen and Ingo Fender, Michael Artis, Marion Kohler and Jacques Melitz; Barry Eichengreen; Michele Fratianni and Andreas Hauskrecht; Paolo Savona and Aurelio Maccario; and Elvio Dal Bosco - and the comments by Paul De Grauwe and William Branson, and the editors' conclusions. Part II contains three papers presented at the Florence conference, by Antonio Fazio, Carl Scognamiglio, and Alberto Predieri.

Monetary Theory and Monetary Policy is the second collection of essays by Karl Brunner - one of the most prominent monetary economists of the twentieth century. It demonstrates the importance of economic analysis for the development of appropriate economic policies. The book opens with a preface by Thomas Lys which provides the reader with an account of both Karl Brunner's personal and academic life. This is developed further in an introduction by Allan H. Meltzer, who focuses on Brunner's intellectual development. Issues discussed in this collection include the question of whether monetarism has failed, monetary policy, persistent inflation, deficits and interest rates, high-powered money, the monetary base, the money supply, international monetary order and the question of whether supply-side economics is sufficient for comprehensive policymaking. This selection will be welcomed by academics, students and policymakers interested in monetary economics and the work of Karl Brunner.

The growing disparity between the developed and the developing countries has once again rekindled the debate about the relative merits of foreign investment as means whereby the developed countries can help the devel oping countries in both achieving a reasonable rate of growth and also from preventing the widening gap between the North and the South from widening even further. This renewed interest in the debate was most sharply highlighted at the recently concluded North-South economic summit conference at Cancun, Mexico. There, the United States took the position that massive increases in foreign aid were neither practical nor the best means of ensuring continuing and satisfactory growth in the developing countries. Rather the solution was to be found in depending on a free market economy and on inflows of private foreign investment. Behind these views, of course lie the more fundamental questions: for example, what should be the role of multinational corporations in the developing countries since they constitute the main source of foreign private investment? Should there be greater cooperation between the public sectors of the North and the South? What is the best means of bridging the economic gap between the North and the South: through direct transfers of wealth from the North to the South or through raising South's growth rates via the transfer of technology and the inflow of investment by multinationals? These questions are of fundamental importance and have wide ranging implications, not only for the economic"

Real exchange rate changes - resulting either from shifts in nominal exchange rates or increases in costs that are asymmetric across countries - are the primary focus of this text. The book shows how exchange rates and local production costs are passed through into import prices. It is found both analytically and empirically for OECD countries that pass-through is incomplete and the degree of pass-through depends on country and industry characteristics such as production share, market structure, product attributes and demand features. The book also investigates the implications of exchange rate changes for profits, investment and the entry/exit decisions of firms. The main finding is that even though the exchange rate changes have a limited impact on price competitiveness, they do matter for location and investment decisions.

The Federal Reserve Bank held its Eleventh Annual Economic Policy Conference on November 14 and 15, 1986. The topic of the conference was Financial Risk: Theory, Evidence and Implications; this volume contains the papers and discussants' comments that were presented at this conference. As the reader will note, these papers cover the broad aspects of financial risk, from some key general concepts to specific domestic and international financial risk problems. And, of equal importance, they provide some interesting insights into reasons for the continuing turmoil in domestic and international financial markets that we have witnessed in recent years. ix I RISK: A GENERAL OVERVIEW 1 DIFFERENCES OF OPINION IN FINANCIAL MARKETS Hal R. Varian The standard models of financial markets such as the Sharpe-Lintner mean- variance model or the Rubinstein-Breeden-Litzenberger contingent con- sumption model both assume more-or-Iess homogenous probability beliefs.! There has been some work on extending the mean-variance model to allow for differences in beliefs across agents; see Jarrow (1980), Lintner (1969), Mayshar (1983), and Williams (1977). Differences in beliefs in contingent commodities models have received much less attention. The major references are Rubinstein (1975, 1976a), Breeden and Litzenberger (1978), Hakansson et al. (1982), and Milgrom and Stokey (1982).

These proceedings, from a conference held at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis on October 17-18, 1991, attempted to layout what we currently know about aggregate economic fluctuations. Identifying what we know inevitably reveals what we do not know about such fluctuations as well. From the vantage point of where the conference's participants view our current understanding to be, these proceedings can be seen as suggesting an agenda for further research. The conference was divided into five sections. It began with the formu lation of an empirical definition of the "business cycle" and a recitation of the stylized facts that must be explained by any theory that purports to capture the business cycle's essence. After outlining the historical develop ment and key features of the current "theories" of business cycles, the conference evaluated these theories on the basis of their ability to explain the facts. Included in this evaluation was a discussion of whether (and how) the competing theories could be distinguished empirically. The conference then examined the implications for policy of what is known and not known about business cycles. A panel discussion closed the conference, high lighting important unresolved theoretical and empirical issues that should be taken up in future business cycle research. What Is a Business Cycle? Before gaining a genuine understanding of business cycles, economists must agree and be clear about what they mean when they refer to the cycle."

Occupational licensure, including regulation of the professions, dates back to the medieval period. While the guilds that performed this regulatory function have long since vanished, professional regulation continues to this day. For instance, in the United States, 22 per cent of American workers must hold licenses simply to do their jobs. While long-established professions have more settled regulatory paradigms, the case studies in Paradoxes of Professional Regulation explore other professions, taking note of incompetent services and the serious risks they pose to the physical, mental, or emotional health, financial well-being, or legal status of uninformed consumers. Michael J. Trebilcock examines five case studies of the regulation of diverse professions, including alternative medicine, mental health care provision, financial planning, immigration consulting, and legal services. Noting the widely divergent approaches to the regulation of the same professions across different jurisdictions - paradoxes of professional regulation - the book is an attempt to develop a set of regulatory principles for the future. In its comparative approach, Paradoxes of Professional Regulation gets at the heart of the tensions influencing the regulatory landscape, and works toward practical lessons for bringing greater coherence to the way in which professions are regulated.

The creation of the ECU in 1979 as part of the newly established European Monetary system was greeted with widespread scepticism, few predicted the success it would have in private financial markets. The macroeconomic and microeconomic implications of the ECU and its significance for monetary integration in Europe are considered by a variety of contributors from academics to those in banking circles. Current research is examined and the theoretical and empirical aspects of the emergence of the ECU as a vehicle for European policy-making are considered to provide insights as to its future development.

Despite the People's Republic of China's remarkable growth over the post-1978 reform period, questions have arisen about the sustainability of its exchange rate policy and the soundness of its financial system. This book focuses on the key monetary challenges to China's continued advancement and addresses such topical issues as the buildup of foreign exchange reserves, monetary control, credit allocation difficulties, and the expanding role of China's asset markets and stock exchanges. Current and past monetary policy strategies are examined in detail as are the banking sector reforms leading up to full foreign competition in December 2006. The analysis also assesses the People's Republic's role within Greater China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) and the potential for future renminbi monetary hegemony within Asia. The treatment of these issues is intended to be accessible to non-economists and does not assume prior immersion in the underlying formal models.

The growth of interest in fiscal decentralization has meant that there has been something of a rush to enshrine this in policy - The World Bank has reported that about 70 countries see this as a major part of their development strategy. This book critically examines the case for decentralization.
This collection of contributions comes from a worldwide team of experts, including Albert Breton, Piero Giarda and Anwar Shah. After analyzing fiscal decentralization in general, the book goes on to look at intriguing case studies of various regions around the world including:
* The European Union
* Hungary and Slovakia
* Russia and China
* Asia and Africa

eBook available with sample pages: 0203219996

The book develops an explanation of distribution between profits and wages, which is both logically coherent and supported by reality. It is centred upon a concept of the money rate of interest as the variable that governs the normal profitability of capital.

To explain the pronounced instability of the world economy since the 1970s, the book offers an important and systematic theoretical examination of money and finance. It re-examines the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money. It assesses all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. By presenting important insights from Japanese political economy previously ignored in Anglo-Saxon economics, the authors make a significant contribution to radical political economy based on a thorough historical analysis of capitalism.

This book analyses Germany's role in the euro crisis. Based on the perception of Berlin as the emerging capital of the European Union, the author investigates three interrelated issues: Did the German policy approach of imposing austerity programs on countries in the middle of a deep recession contribute to the successful management of the euro crisis? Does Germany extend its sway over its European partners by forcing them to surrender to the German diktat of fiscal Disziplin and economic efficiency? Is the stubborn insistence on rigid fiscal adjustment another ominous sign of the Berlin Republic moving away from the country's traditional European vocation toward an imperial leadership role? The book's main argument is that Germany's role in and responses to the euro crisis can best be explained by different concepts of self, historical memory, and institutional practices.

International transactions among nations and multinational corporations are important and growing due to the openness of economies all over the world. In this follow-up title to "Exchange Rates and International Financial Economics," Kallianiotis examines the role of the exchange rate and trade policy in improving the trade account. He discusses the international parity conditions extensively, together with the most popular theory in international finance, the interest rate parity (IRP) theory.
"International Financial Transactions and Exchange Rates" describes these theories and gives practical solutions for multinational businesses, individuals, and nations. The increasing internationalization of businesses, openness of economies, integration of nations, change in the exchange rate system, and lastly, the deregulation of the financial market and institutions around the world have made the study of international finance necessary for all business students and professionals.

'Superb' - Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add Up Money is essential to the economy and how we live our lives, yet is inherently worthless. We can use it to build a home or send us to space, and it can lead to the rise and fall of empires. Few innovations have had such a huge impact on the development of humanity, but money is a shared fiction; a story we believe in so long as others act as if it is true. Money is rarely out of the headlines - from the invention of cryptocurrencies to the problem of high inflation, extraordinary interventions by central banks and the power the West has over the worldwide banking system. In Money in One Lesson, Gavin Jackson answers the most important questions on what money is and how it shapes our world, drawing on vivid examples from throughout history to demystify and show how societies and its citizens, both past and present, are always entwined with matters of money. 'A highly illuminating, well-researched and beautifully written book on one of humanity's most important innovations' - Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator, Financial Times

Exchange Rates and the Monetary System comprises a careful selection of Peter B. Kenen's acclaimed papers on international monetary economics written over the past thirty years. The volume includes Professor Kenen's theoretical and empirical essays on the functioning of the international monetary system, policy co-ordination and exchange rate management, the debt problem, monetary integration in Western Europe and economic reform in Eastern Europe. A detailed introduction places Professor Kenen's papers in context and outlines the development of his thought as well as his experience of international policy making and policy co-ordination, beginning with the Kennedy administration and including recent visits to institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England. Divided into sections which deal specifically with theory, measurement and policy prescription, this volume offers a comprehensive assessment of international monetary economics by a scholar who has made significant contributions to both theory and policy.

John Hicks's writing on monetary economics spans over 50 years. This book draws together the common threads of his work in a single succinct statement of the basics of monetary theory. It also outlines a theory of competitive markets which can be linked to the monetary sector; neither standard classical or neo-classical value theory can , on its own, fill the gap between monetary and non-monetary economics. In reviewing his own work, Hicks explains the way in which economic theory has been adjusted to reflect developments in the real economy. He sees these changes, sometimes quite major, as the discovery of truths which have become more appropriate, rather than the the discovery of completely new truths.

This work, integrating monetary and value theory in a Walrasian general equilibrium context, anticipated by almost two decades the line of research which attempts to recast macroeconomics by reference to its microeconomic foundations. The notion of an integrated set of markets offered intuitive perception of intermarket linkages. At the same time it highlighted some of the pitfalls of traditional neoclassical monetary analysis, such as the erroneous imputation of unitary elasticity to the demand curve for money.;Patinkin's presentation of general equilibrium illuminated the difficulty in upholding the Keynesian notion of underemployment equilibrium. His insightful efforts to understand behaviour in labour markets in disequilibrium led him to provide the first well worked out example of the powerful implications of disequilibrium and thereby to lay the foundations for the disequilibrium analysis of the 1970s.

Robert W. Clower has had a profound effect on the theory and practice of economics. The distinguished group of contributors to this book celebrates his seminal contribution to economic methodology and theory by providing key accounts of important themes in the area of money, markets and method. The volume begins with a number of papers dealing with Robert Clower's work and his views on methodology. The contributors then discuss Keynes's General Theory and its relationship to conventional Keynesian macroeconomic theory as well as the origins of the General Theory itself, a subject that has been central to Clower's writings. The analysis is then expanded to concentrate on how institutions matter in thin markets. Finally, the authors analyse ways in which adaptive behaviour influences the stability of markets in the context of trading relationships, repeated games and retail stores.