Monetary Issues

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Essay, Nov/Dec 2009
C. Fred Bergsten

The global economic crisis has revealed the folly of large U.S. budget and trade deficits, as well as of the strong dollar that makes them possible. If it is serious about recovery, the United States must balance the budget, stimulate private saving, and embrace a declining dollar.

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Essay, Sep/Oct 2009
Barry Eichengreen

The economic crisis is hurting the world's top currency. But the pound, the yen, the euro, the renminbi, and the IMF's accounting currency are no match for the dollar. At least for now.

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Response, May/June 2009
Robert Madsen; Richard Katz

Does the current financial crisis resemble Japan's "lost decade" of the 1990s? It may be even worse, argues Robert Madsen. Not so, replies Richard Katz.

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Comment, Mar/Apr 2009
Richard Katz

The financial crisis of 2008 is not a replay of Japan’s “lost decade” of the 1990s. The current crisis is the result of correctable policy mistakes rather than deep structural flaws in the economy.

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Essay, May/June 2007
Benn Steil

Global financial instability has sparked a surge in "monetary nationalism" -- the idea that countries must make and control their own currencies. But globalization and monetary nationalism are a dangerous combination, a cause of financial crises and geopolitical tension. The world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn.

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Comment, Mar/Apr 2002
Martin Feldstein

The danger of Argentina's latest economic crisis is that the good policy choices of the past decade will be thrown out with the bad.

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Essay, Jul/Aug 2001
William F. Wechsler

Financial abuses -- money laundering, tax evasion, and rogue banking -- have been around for as long as there have been finances to abuse. But globalization is creating new challenges as borders dissolve. New technologies enable tiny, remote countries to make quick money through their underregulated banking systems. Recent multilateral initiatives have started to attack the problem. But if the Bush administration fails to follow through on reforms, the entire effort could fall apart.

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Response, Jul/Aug 2000
James D. Robinson III

Fretting about inflation, the Federal Reserve has given in to overkill. Instead, it should let the 1990s economic phenomenon roll on.

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Comment, Mar/Apr 2000
Stephan-Götz Richter

U.S. immigration policy is strict enough as it is. Those who want it even stricter should realize that less immigration means fewer workers and higher inflation.

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Essay, Mar/Apr 2000
Niall Ferguson and Laurence J. Kotlikoff

To date, the successful launch of Europe's single currency has proven the euroskeptics wrong. But over time, the euro will be gravely threatened if the countries in the eurozone do not put their fiscal houses in order. Generational accounting, a careful analysis of long-term trends, paints a bleak picture: unsustainable spending will bury future generations under mountains of debt. Most governments using the euro must either endure deep budget cuts, swallow sharp tax hikes, or be forced out of the eurozone.

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