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.

Why did France, with its strong sense of national identity, want to give up the Franc for the Euro? This book, by a former British diplomat in Paris, draws on new archive evidence to explore France's drive for European Economic and Monetary Union, and how unresolved Franco-German tensions over its design led to crisis.

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the problems that the current working of capital markets are generating on both developed and developing economies. It pays special attention to the reasons explaining the unstable and volatile working of international financial markets and to the consequences of that behaviour on both the economic performance of the involved countries and on the economic policies implemented.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

International Money was first published in 1981.

First Published in 2005. The Irish Report is a scarce document, known to comparatively few economists. This reprint of the Report and of portions of the Minutes of Evidence, set against the historical background, will not only be of interest to the student of monetary theory and of monetary history, but also help to give perspective on some present-day problems of monetary and exchange policy, particularly in the countries of the sterling area. The Irish Report was frequently cited in the pamphlet literature of the time, and in Parliamentary debate, and discussed in detail the exchange situation between Ireland and England.

This book was first published in 1985.

The formulation of a common European monetary policy offers an important challenge to policymakers both in Europe and around the globe. The analysis of monetary transmission mechanisms in Europe, and the US, provides insights of great importance as the institutional environment of monetary policy changes. Historically, it has been proved difficult to empirically establish the effects of monetary policy measures on the economy. This study of the monetary transmission mechanism pays close attention to the role of financial markets in the transmission process. The author analyses aspects of monetary transmission, such as interest rates and exchange rates, with evidence from several European countries including the Netherlands, UK and Germany as well as from the US. This research on monetary transmission greatly increases our understanding of the effect, or ineffectiveness, of monetary policy on economies in general. The author presents a comprehensive discussion of the outcomes of empirical research along with an extensive survey of the literature and a discussion of the methods used, since interest in the subject was renewed in the 1980s. This work will be invaluable to policymakers in central banks and government ministries as well as academic researchers and economists alike.

This volume contains the proceedings of a conference held in 1990 on the theme of Exchange Rate Regimes and Currency Unions. The papers are all devoted to theoretical and empirical analyses of systems of fixed and flexible exchange rates, to the role of central bank behaviour and other government policies in such systems, to the prospects, workings and effects of a European monetary system, and to topics of capital mobility and economic integration in general.

Looking at historical cross-country interactions, this book examines the role of the US in the world economy. Illustrating that US shocks tend to have a global nature and that Monetary Union only partially shelters the Euro area from its external environment, the book argues that the US should fully assume its responsibility, minimizing shock transmission.

This book pulls together papers presented at a conference in honour of the 1981 Nobel Prize Winner for Economic Science, the late James Tobin. Among the contributors are Olivier Blanchard, Edmund Phelps, Charles Goodhart and Marco Buti. One of the main aims of the conference was to discuss what potential role monetary policy has on economic activity and unemployment reduction in three key currency zones - the United States, European Union and Japan.

In this volume, Louis-Philippe Rochon and Hassan Bougrine bring together key post-Keynesian voices in an effort to push the boundaries of our understanding of banks, central banking, monetary policy and endogenous money. Issues such as interest rates, income distribution, stagnation and crises - both theoretical and empirical - are woven together and analysed by the many contributors to shed new light on them. The result is an alternative analysis of contemporary monetary economies, and the policies that are so needed to address the problems of today. Students and professors of economics, policymakers interested in alternative policies, academics and scholars in all fields will benefit from the explorations therein, and would also appreciate the companion publication, Economic Growth and Macroeconomic Stabilization Policies in Post-Keynesian Economics, also published by Edward Elgar Publishing. Contributors include: R. Bellofiore, H. Bougrine, J. Chen, L. Cordonnier, E. Correa, S. Dow, T. Ferguson, G. Fontana, C. Gnos, R. Guttmann, P.D. Jorgensen, P. Kriesler, E. Le Heron, J. Leclaire, V. Monvoisin, A. Parguez, E. Perez Caldentey, P. Petit, J.-F. Ponsot, L.-P. Rochon, S. Rossi, S. Thabet, J. Toporowski, M. Vernengo

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.

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.

Hassan Bougrine, Louis-Philippe Rochon and the expert contributors to this book explore issues of economic growth and full employment; presenting a clear explanation to stagnation, recessions and crises, including the latest Global Financial Crisis of 2007-8. With a central focus on the role played by government spending, deficits and debt as well as the setting of interest rates, the chapters propose alternative policies that can be used by central banks and fiscal authorities to deal with problems of income inequality, unemployment and slow productivity. Students and professors of economics, policymakers interested in alternative policies, academics and scholars in all fields will benefit from the explorations therein and would do well to seek out the companion publication, Credit, Money and Crises in Post-Keynesian Economics, also published by Edward Elgar Publishing. Contributors include: P. Arestis, R.A. Blecker, S. Cesaratto, O. Costantini, J.J. da Silveira, M. Dufour, A.K. Dutt, G. Epstein, G. Fujii-Gambero, M. Garcia-Ramos, J. Halevi-Haifa, G.C. Harcourt, E. Hein, E. Kam, J.E. King, P. Kriesler, G.T. Lima, J.A. Montecino, T.I. Palley, F.J. Prante, M. Sawyer, M. Setterfield, J. Smithin, J. Stanford, S. Storm

Eurozone Dystopia traces the origin of the Eurozone and shows how the historical Franco-German rivalry combined with the growing dominance of neo-liberal economic thinking to create a monetary system that was deeply flawed and destined to fail. William Mitchell argues that the political class in Europe is trapped in a destructive groupthink. Based on a flawed understanding of macroeconomic fundamentals, groupthink extols the virtues of the erroneous concept of the self-regulating free market and prevents Europe from seeing its own policy failures. As a result, millions are unemployed, with imperiled member states caught in a cycle of persistent stagnation and rising social instability.Providing a detailed historical analysis of the evolution of the Eurozone and its failings from the 1940s to the present day, the book argues that the Eurozone lacks the necessary monetary architecture, particularly the existence of a federal fiscal function which could have resolved the economic crisis quickly. The author examines the options available to Europe and concludes that an orderly abandonment of the euro and a return to national currencies is the superior option available. The justification for this conclusion is exhaustively argued within a Modern Monetary Theory framework. This thoughtful and accessible account of Europe's economic woes will appeal to all those who are seeking an explanation for the crisis and are receptive to sensible and credible alternatives to the current scenario.

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.

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"

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.

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.

Contents:
1. Fiscal federalism and EMU: an appraisal Philip Whyman and Mark Baimbridge Part 1: Theory of fiscal federalism 2. An essay on fiscal federalism Wallace E. Oates 3. The political economy of EMU and the EU Stability Pact Ralph Rotte Part 2: Development of EU budgetary measures 4. The development of EU budgetary measures and the rise of structural funding Jeffrey Harrop 5. The development of the EU budget and EMU Brian Ardy Part 3: EMU and fiscal federalism 6. Stabilisation in EMU: a critical review Robert Ackrill 7. Fiscal and monetary policies Edward M. Gramlich and Paul R. Wood Part 4: A global perspective 8. Australia's federal experience Jeff Petchey and Graeme Wells 9. Fiscal federalism in Switzerland: a public choice approach Christoph A. Schaltegger and René L. Frey 10. Fiscal institutions, regional adjustment and convergence in Canada's currency union: lessons for EMU Tracy R. Snoddon