Electronic Money Flows describes the far-reaching present changes under way in payments and capital markets. Electronic payment forms are in the process of molding a new financial regime-largely shared and inter dependent-throughout the world. Our earlier Electronic Funds Transfers and Payments (Kluwer, 1987) looked at the new money technology in its initial phases of development and in broad focus. Then, as now, the contributors came from many different disciplines. The synthesis of their diverse views laid out the background for the electronic payments revolution to come, and the great benefits but also risks for segmented sectors of society. The old questions have not gone away; new ones have been added to the agenda. For example, what is the nature of money today amidst an array of computer-based options? What money and turnover concepts are appropriate to the electronic age? What are the effects of high-speed money flows on markets, volatility, money control, even the business cycle? Is the financial system more prone to instability but also to faster correction, given the swift movement of money and payments? At the same time, is privacy imperilled by the ubiquitous computer-linked webs that move both information and money? This second book is thus companion to Electronic Funds Transfers and Payments and expands upon it. Contributors discuss the expectations that have and have not come to fruition, together withthe new issuesofthe past four years."

This is a systematic study of monetary policy and financial institutions in China during its decentralization- and market-oriented economic reform. It not only contains substantial information on money and finance, and the operation of financial institutions in China, but also identifies mechanisms of the monetary expansion as the general feature of monetary policy.

This book presents the most significant theoretical articles by Bertram Schefold to illuminate the development and the present state of modern classical theory. It assembles twenty heavily discussed papers on joint production and fixed capital, choice of technique and technical progress, composition of output and the relation between classical, neoclassical and keynesian economics. There is a broad new introduction. The chapter on the critique of intertemporal general equilibrium is novel and represents an original theoretical advance.

"Monetary Policy and the Economy in South Africa" covers both modern theories and empirical analysis, linking monetary policy with relating house wealth, drivers of current account based on asset approach, expenditure switching and income absorption effects of monetary policy on trade balance, effects of inflation uncertainty on output growth and international spill overs. Each chapter uses data and relevant methodology to answer empirical and pertinent policy questions in South Africa. The book gives new insights into understanding these areas of economic policy and the wider emerging-markets.

This six-volume set contains the writings of the earliest pioneers of monetary theory. It contains some 28 texts, beginning with Gerard de Maynes' "A Treatise of the Canker of England's Common Wealth" (1601) and ending with Joseph Harris' "An Essay on Money and Coins" (1757/58). It contains some 28 texts, beginning with Gerard de Maynes' "A Treatise of the Canker of England's Common Wealth" (1601) and ending with Joseph Harris' "An Essay on Money and Coins" (1757/58). Many of the texts reproduced are both rare and difficult to read in their original form. Here each text has been carefully re-typeset and produced in its entirety, which should give scholars full access to this area of monetary theory. The material is organized chronologically, and begins with early mercantilist writings which explore the crucial relationship between money and trade.

The spread of currency convertibility is one of the most dramatic trends of the late twentieth century. It reflects the desire of policymakers to integrate their economies into the global trading system and to attract financial capital and direct investment from abroad. In this book a team of leading international economists and economic historians look at parallel situations in the history of the international monetary system, focusing in particular on the gold standard. The concluding chapter uses a case study of modern Portugal to draw out implications for modern international monetary relations in Europe and for the rest of the world.

The Bretton Woods system ensured a quarter of a century of relative stability on the world's financial markets. The quarter of a century which has followed has brought financial chaos and excessive financial volatility. Exchange Rate Chaos: 25 Years of Financial and Consumer Democracy describes and compares US and British financial history during this period. It highlights: * similarites in financial developments between the two countries * consumer democracy: Have the wishes of consumers dominated exchange rate policy? * The decline of the small investor and the hegemony of financial institutions * How the floating exchange rates are manipulated to government advantage One of the few financial histories to deal with the postwar period, this book shows how financial developments have shaped contemporary society and politics.

In the aftermath of the debates between Keynesians and monetarists, this book provides a lucid, concise overview of the most recent developments in monetary theory. Professor Visser has written an up-to-date survey which discusses major issues such as crowding out, the new classical macroeconomics, the breakdown of the stable money demand function, buffer stocks and currency substitution.Currency problems in general have come to the fore after the collapse of the Bretton-Woods system. The book addresses topical issues including Hayek's proposal to denationalize money as well as theoretical issues, such as the search for the microfoundations of monetary theory. This is an important, up-to-date survey of recent developments in monetary theory, and the economic reasoning which underlies it. The use of mathematics has been kept to a minimum.

The book focuses on forecasting foreign exchange rates via artificial neural networks. It creates and applies the highly useful computational techniques of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to foreign-exchange-rate forecasting. The result is an up-to-date review of the most recent research developments in forecasting foreign exchange rates coupled with a highly useful methodological approach to predicting rate changes in foreign currency exchanges. Foreign Exchange Rate Forecasting with Artificial Neural Networks is targeted at both the academic and practitioner audiences. Managers, analysts and technical practitioners in financial institutions across the world will have considerable interest in the book, and scholars and graduate students studying financial markets and business forecast will also have considerable interest in the book. The book discusses the most important advances in foreign-exchange-rate forecasting and then systematically develops a number of new, innovative, and creatively crafted neural network models that reduce the volatility and speculative risk in the forecasting of foreign exchange rates. The book discusses and illustrates three general types of ANN models. Each of these model types reflect the following innovative and effective characteristics: (1) The first model type is a three-layer, feed-forward neural network with instantaneous learning rates and adaptive momentum factors that produce learning algorithms (both online and offline algorithms) to predict foreign exchange rates. (2) The second model type is the three innovative hybrid learning algorithms that have been created by combining ANNs with exponential smoothing, generalized linearauto-regression, and genetic algorithms. Each of these three hybrid algorithms has been crafted to forecast various aspects synergetic performance. (3) The third model type is the three innovative ensemble learning algorithms that combining multiple neural networks into an ensemble output. Empirical results reveal that these creative models can produce better performance with high accuracy or high efficiency.

The Group of Seven Industrialized Countries, G7 developed a new doctrine of international supervision and regulation of financial markets. The G7 instructed international financial institution such as the IMF, Bank for International Settlements, the World Bank and the Multilateral Development Bank to tighten their supervision and regulation of international finance. This volume examines this doctrine sometimes known as 'New Architecture of the International Financial Systems' or IFA. Strengthening of the international financial system never ends and there have been recurring vulnerabilities in international financial architecture. The book examines current practices and its consequences and how the IFA has evolved and its alternatives. The book draws upon academic knowledge, practitioner techniques in financial risk management and official doctrine to analyze how investors, creditors and debts function within the new architecture.

This book explores the causes and effects of the rise of neoliberalism in Eastern Europe in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. It provides a political economy analysis of the role of central banks, and identifies them as a key actor in the production and dissemination of the neoliberal economic policies.

The text is the first of its kind on financial engineering and risk management in Islamic finance. It sets out detailed guidelines for financial engineering from an Islamic perspective. The text also presents some practical issues concerning futures contracts and how these can be handled from an Islamic perspective. It brings out the different points of view in this respect and reflects the current state of knowledge as well as the challenges that lie ahead for financial engineers. The text explores the prospects of some Islamic contracts having similarity with commodity futures; forward contracts, especially in agriculture; and Islamic permissible contractual arrangements for resource mobilization by the public sector. It also makes an analytical comparison between debt and equity contracts with regard to incentive compatibility and efficiency.

How successful is PPP, and its extension in the monetary model, as a measure of the equilibrium exchange rate? What are the determinants and dynamics of equilibrium real exchange rates? How can misalignments be measured, and what are their causes? What are the effects of specific policies upon the equilibrium exchange rate? The answers to these questions are important to academic theorists, policymakers, international bankers and investment fund managers. This volume encompasses all of the competing views of equilibrium exchange rate determination, from PPP, through other reduced form models, to the macroeconomic balance approach. This volume is essentially empirical: what do we know about exchange rates? The different econometric and theoretical approaches taken by the various authors in this volume lead to mutually consistent conclusions. This consistency gives us confidence that significant progress has been made in understanding what are the fundamental determinants of exchange rates and what are the forces operating to bring them back in line with the fundamentals.

Federal Reserve monetary policy has a profound effect on the U.S. economy and consequently on investments. This unique book combines the institutional approach to monetary policy with the theories and principles involved in applying that knowledge to investing. Although there are many books on the Federal Reserve and a myriad of books on investing, this synthesis of institutional, theoretical, and practical applications is unique to the marketplace.

In part I, Laura Nowak reviews the political origins of the Federal Reserve and follows its growth into the powerful arbiter of U.S. economic policy today. The actual conduct and effects of monetary policy are then explained with an eye toward identifying changes in policy that can be applied to the investment world. In part II, the effects of monetary policies on stock and bond markets and on particular industires are discussed, followed by a description of the investment instruments that will be impacted by different policies. In conclusion, Nowak offers a chapter of suggestions for hedging against changes in monetary policy and another chapter describing the tools that can be used for this purpose. The book will be useful to investment professionals who are intimately involved in their own specialty but who want and need to understand how the system works so they can improve their performance and advise their clients with more knowledge and authority.

Under the rule of the current economic order, social injustice is ever-increasing. Issues such as poverty, inhumane working conditions, inadequate wages, social insecurity and an unhealthy labor market continue to persist. Many states are also unable to produce policies capable of resolving these problems. The characteristics of the capitalist system currently render it unable to provide social justice. In fact, on the contrary, the system reinforces these injustices and prevents economic and social welfare from reaching the masses. Many Muslim scholars have analyzed and, indeed, criticized this system for years. This book argues that an alternative and more equitable theoretical and practical economical order can been developed within the framework of Islamic principles. On the other hand, the experiences of societies under the rule of Muslim governments do not always seem to hold great promise for an alternative understanding of social justice. In addition, the behaviors of Muslim individuals within their economic lives are mostly shaped by the necessities of daily economic conditions rather than by the tenets of Islam that stand with social justice. Until 1990s, studies of Islamic economics made connections between finance and the notion of social justice, but work conducted more recently has neglected this issue. It is therefore evident that the topic of social justice needs to be revisited in a more in-depth manner. Filling an important gap in existing literature, the book uniquely connects social justice and Islamic finance and economics on this topic. Theory, practice and key issues are presented simultaneously throughout this book, which is based on the writings of a number of eminent scholars.

Banking in Transition Economies is a modern analysis of banking in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe and includes a detailed examination of banking in the first five years of transition as well as policy recommendations for banking reform in the region. This authoritative book presents an extensive investigation of changes in the structure of the banking industry and the progress of privatization, particularly in Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. Privatization and the restructuring of 'problem banks' are analysed as well as the strategy for re-capitalization and bank failure, and the role of foreign banks in bringing reform to the region. The book offers policy prescriptions for the transition from a passive banking structure to an active financial sector supporting the development of the industrial sector, and for the role of the state after privatization. This book will be of great importance to bankers in Central and Eastern Europe and economists interested in the process of transition, as well as financial and monetary economists.

In this timely and thought-provoking book, Eckhard Hein illustrates that the Great Recession, which hit the world economy in 2008/09, is rooted in the contradictions of finance-dominated capitalism. The author provides an in-depth exploration of the macroeconomics of finance-dominated capitalism, its problems and its crisis, and presents economic policy lessons and alternatives. In particular, he shows that since the early 1980s, finance-dominated capitalism has affected long-run economic developments via three distinct channels: - the re-distribution of income at the expense of low labor incomes, - the dampening of investment in real capital stock, - and an increasing potential for wealth-based and debt-financed consumption. The author concludes that against the background of these basic macroeconomic tendencies, increasing instability potentials at the national economy levels and rising current account imbalances at both global and European levels have developed and have contributed to the severity of the Great Recession. This systematic study of finance-dominated capitalism presented from a macroeconomic perspective will prove a thought-provoking read for academics, researchers, graduate students and economic policy consultants with an interest in macroeconomics, financial economics, economic policies, and distribution and growth.

In this book, Justin Pack proposes a genealogy of the traditional suspicion of money and merchants. This genealogy is framed both by how money itself has changed and how different traditions responded to money. Money and merchants became heavily debated concerns in the Axial Age, which coincided with the spread of coinage. A deep suspicion of money and merchants was particularly notable in the Greek, Confucian and Christian traditions, and continued into the Middle Ages. These traditions wrestled with a new dialectic of purity that also appears with the widespread use of money. How were these concerns dealt with politically, socially and philosophically? How did they change over time? How did medieval Europe deal with money and how did this inform modern governmentality? To answer these questions, Pack turns to Hanna Arendt's work. Arendt argues that one of the outstanding characteristics of our time is thoughtlessness. This thoughtlessness is related to how modern life, especially under neoliberalism, is increasingly structured by abstract systems, abstract calculative rationality, abstract relations, and the profit motive. Money both drives and embodies this machinery. The hyper-complex abstract systems of modernity discourage, to use Arendtian terms, "thinking" (wonder, questioning everything) in favor of "cognition" (problem solving). Too often the result is thoughtless cognition-the ability to make things more productive and efficient paired with the incapacity to question and challenge the implications and morality of these systems.

These conference proceedings bring together 12 new essays on a variety of key issues in the field of domestic and international monetary economics. They cover aspects of monetary theory as well as monetary policy, the prime objective being the development of intellectual tools in order to find new ways of thinking to existing and new monetary problems in an increasingly unstable world economy marked by rapid and often unexpected changes, partly caused by the disappearance of boundaries for financial transactions.;The papers cover a wide range of topics aimed at meeting some of the challenges likely to arise during the late-20th century and beyond. By challenging the orthodox paradigms in monetary economics and generating controversy, the volume should be a reference point for economists, central and commercial bankers, businessmen and politicians. Other titles by Stephen F. Frowen include "Controlling Industrial Economies", "Monetary Policy and Financial Innovations in Five Industrial Countries" and "Unknowledge and Choice in Economics".

The recent evolution of an independent cross market, combined with the technological advancements in computerized trading marked the beginning of a new era in the Foreign Exchange Market. Triangular arbitrage among currencies, once only a theory, is now common practice for those with access to large amounts of money. This book illustrates how converting from one currency to another, then to another, and back to the original currency can be very profitable. This study provides the first direct and precise test of triangular arbitrage based on actual data.

A risk-free profit can be made by taking advantage of price discrepancies of a currency in several different markets. The study begins by reviewing past work on triangular arbitrage and provides a comprehensive review of the Foreign Exchange Market and the procedures of computerized trading. The author then presents the theory of triangular arbitrage, given a group of five major currencies. The last chapters develop methods of testing that are original and based on empiracal information. The author is careful to explain that profits arer dependent on many variables related to market volume, volatility, inefficiency, and unexpected news. The markets that consistently show the largest amounts of inefficiency are the dollar-pound-yen, dollar-mark-yen, and dollar-yen-franc markets. Inefficiencies in triangular arbitrage imply that risk-free profitable opportunities exist. Traders can take advantage of those opportunities by focusing their attention on the markets in which profitable opportunities are available.

This edited volume explores theoretical and empirical issues related to monetary economics and policy in the Islamic financial system. Derived from the Conference on Islamic Monetary Economics and Institutions: Theory and Practice 2017 held in Male, Maldives, the enclosed papers highlights several option for authorities and regulatory bodies regarding monetary policy and regulation, as well as discussing how Islamic monetary policy effects growth, financial stability and resilience to shocks in practice. The inter-linkage between Islamic monetary policy and other markets are also explored. The subject of Islamic economics has gained considerable attention in the last four decades with the emergence of Islamic financial institutions around the world. This phenomenon has motivated economists to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework of modern monetary economics for Islamic economic system. An important characteristic of the Islamic economic system is the abolition of interest from the financial system. Islamic monetary economics is distinguished from conventional monetary economics due to the absence of interest. Therefore, under the Islamic economic system, monetary policy has to depend on other tools. In the early theoretical literature on Islamic monetary economics, many have discussed the role of money in Islamic economics system, while the number of empirical studies on Islamic monetary economics is a relatively new phenomenon. According to Islamic scholars, there are three main goals of Islamic monetary policy: a) economic well-being with full employment and optimum rate of economic growth; b) socioeconomic justice and equitable distribution of income and wealth and c) stability in the value of money. Hence, the Islamic monetary policy has several socioeconomic and ethical implications. Featuring regional case studies, this book serves as a valuable resource for academics, scholars, practitioners and policy makers in the areas of Islamic economics and finance.

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.

This volume contains an Open Access Chapter The Sustainability of Health Care Systems in Europe provides a comprehensive understanding of the sustainability of health systems in Europe. Furthermore, it includes an introduction to how EU action in supporting health- care policies in the EU Member States, looking both at implemented actions and describing current priorities for the future. There has been a rapid evolution of the structure of society and the economy over the last few decades which has created new demands for healthcare services. This has placed pressure on policy makers to ensure the sustainability of the health care sector. Policy makers understand the efficiency of the healthcare delivery system needs to be improved, the shortage of health professionals must be tackled, and that there are growing health inequalities and inequity in access to healthcare. These challenges are exacerbated by recent economic shocks including the 2008 recession, the uncertainty related to Brexit, and the crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which have impacted the ability of European health systems to finance the health care sector. This book is a must read for researchers and students of health economics and health policy.

This book provides a thorough knowledge of the nature of the convergence criteria which states must meet in order to qualify for accession to the future Economic and Monetary Union of Europe and comprehensive coverage of both the economic and political rationale of the criteria within the framework of an international political economy approach. Thus, throughout the course of the analysis, three questions in particular are addressed: first, what is the relationship between the economics and politics of the convergence criteria; second, how do domestic and international factors impact upon their future realisation; and third what, overall, is the role of the state. This book gives valuable insights into the Economic and Monetary Union debate.

It's now 50 years since gold convertibility of the US dollar ended in 1971, and was succeeded by the unsustainable "non-system" of 100% paper currencies and floating exchange-rates, which is now nearing its end. The monetary instability experienced in recent years imposes enormous costs worldwide, and has led to calls for a "A New Bretton Woods" or other "reset" of the international monetary system. In order to avoid the same problem arising again at a later date, the value of money must once again be defined in terms of some real commodity or commodities, as it has been for most of history. However, making currencies convertible into gold once again would be no panacea. A better alternative, first proposed in the 19th century, and advocated in the 20th century by both Keynes and Hayek (despite being leaders of opposing schools of economics) is for money to be made convertible into a range of commodities other than gold. A simple, practical means of implementing this idea was promoted in the 1950s by the Australian economist Leo StClare Grondona, to much acclaim in Britain. Despite the growing potential of new forms of money using Blockchain technology, no alternative to real convertibility has been proposed as a reliable means to ensure their value, and so this book argues that the Grondona System's time has now come. The world cannot afford another round of unsustainable and unstable "fiat" currencies that will fail yet again, spreading poverty and injustice worldwide once more. A sustainable basis for sovereign national money systems, which the world urgently needs, can be simply achieved by implementing this "Grondona System" - the only practical and dependable way to realize the policy advocated by both Keynes and Hayek, whereby the value of currency is stabilized by making it conditionally convertible into a range of primary commodities. Once one country implements the Grondona system, market forces will be harnessed to stabilise the value of the national currency, creating a system which provides an objective measure of its real value. The impact on both economic policy and on the economics profession of a growing range of countries adopting the system will be profound. It will also help many poor developing countries, which export primary commodities and suffer greatly from both the instability of commodity market prices and fluctuations in world trade.