Toward a New International Financial Architecture: A Practical Post-Asia Agenda / Edition 1

by Barry Eichengreen

Overview

The Asian financial crisis and the global economic turmoil that followed it have highlighted the need to avert financial crises and resolve them quickly if they do occur. This book addresses current concerns that existing institutional arrangements, including the Bretton Woods institutions, can no longer adequately cope with today's world of high capital mobility. It provides a critical assessment of competing proposals to better predict, forestall, and resolve international financial crises and outlines a practical and pragmatic agenda for reform. The recommendations are based on the belief that financial markets can malfunction, creating a compelling case for a financial safety net (and therefore a role for the IMF), but also creating problems of moral hazard that must be addressed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780881322705
Publisher:	Peterson Institute for International Economics
Publication date:	01/01/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Barry Eichengreen is an American economist who holds the title of George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1987. He has done research and published widely on the history and current operation of the international monetary and financial system. He received his BA from UC Santa Cruz and his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1979. He was a senior policy advisor to the International Monetary Fund in 1997 and 1998, although he has since been critical of the IMF.

Table of Contents

Preface
(1) Summary of Recommendations
(2) Standards for Crisis Prevention
(3) Banks and Capital Flows
(4) Bailing in the Private Sector
(5) What Won't Work
(6) What the IMF Should Do (and What We Should Do about the IMF)
Appendix 1: Other Plans
Appendix 2: How Economists Understand Crises
Appendix 3. Understanding Asia's Crisis
References.

What People are Saying About This

John Lipsky

The book is excellent, thorough, sensible, well-written, with a point of view...(It) will become a standard reference in the subject.
— (John Lipsky, Chief Economist and Managing Director, Chase Manhattan Bank)

Jeffrey A. Frankel

The definitive outside source on the G7/G22 initiatives, including a rapid-response evaluation of them and further proposals.
— (Jeffrey A. Frankel, Council of Economics Advisers)

Editorial Reviews

It offers a concise analysis of the main problems ailing today's international financial system and a host of modest, but useful, suggestions for reform.

The Economist

The details of the straightforward approach (to reforming the international financial architecture) are laid out with admirable clarity.

Clive Crook

Skillful and comprehensive... [the book] offers an especially lucid account of the Asian financial crisis.

Foreign Affairs - Richard N. Cooper

It offers a concise analysis of the main problems ailing today's international financial system and a host of modest, but useful, suggestions for reform.

Economist

Addresses current concerns that existing institutional arrangements, including Bretton Woods institutions, can no longer adequately cope with today's world of high capital mobility. Provides a critical assessment of competing proposals to better predict, forestall, and resolve international financial crises, and outlines a practical and pragmatic agenda for reform. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

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