Search

Begin New Search Topic Monetary Policy

271. The Design and Effects of Monetary Policy in Sub-Saharan African Countries

Author:
Mohsin S. Khan
Publication Date:
07-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
Since the 1990s there have been a number of major changes in the design and conduct of monetary policy. In a globalized environment, there is less time to adjust to shocks and greater need to achieve closer convergence of economic performance among trading partners. As a result, a number of developing countries have adopted exchange rate regimes with more flexibility, and thereby greater scope for monetary policy. Notable examples include a number of sub-Saharan African countries moving from fixed exchange-rate regimes to more flexible regimes and the adoption of formal or informal inflation targeting regimes by some of these countries. These changes have triggered considerable debate on how monetary policy should be conducted and the effects it has on the real economy.
Topic:
Economics and Monetary Policy
Political Geography:
Africa

272. The Realities and Relevance of Japan's Great Recession: Neither Ran nor Rashomon

Author:
Adam S. Posen
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
Japan's Great Recession was the result of a series of macroeconomic and financial policy mistakes. Thus, it was largely avoidable once the initial shock from the bubble bursting had passed. The aberration in Japan's recession was not the behaviour of growth, which is best seen as a series of recoveries aborted by policy errors. Rather, the surprise was the persistent steadiness of limited deflation, even after recovery took place. This is a more fundamental challenge to our basic macroeconomic understanding than is commonly recognized. The UK and US economies are at low risk of having recurrent recessions through macroeconomic policy mistakes—but deflation itself cannot be ruled out. The United Kingdom worryingly combines a couple of financial parallels to Japan with far less room for fiscal action to compensate for them than Japan had. Also, Japan did not face poor prospects for external demand and the need to reallocate productive resources across export sectors during its Great Recession. Many economies do now face this challenge simultaneously, which may limit the pace of, and their share in, the global recovery.
Topic:
Economics, Markets, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
United States, Japan, and United Kingdom

273. Estimates of Fundamental Equilibrium Exchange Rates, May 2010

Author:
William R. Cline and John Williamson
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
This policy brief updates our estimates of fundamental equilibrium exchange rates (FEERs) to the latest issue of the World Economic Outlook (WEO) published by the International Monetary Fund in April 2010 (IMF 2010a). It is part of what has now become an annual cycle drawing out what we believe to be the implications of the IMF's forecasts for the pattern that exchange rates need to take if the world is to approach a reasonably satisfactory medium-run equilibrium position. This year we also published an interim report (Cline and Williamson 2010), partly drawing on the October 2009 WEO but essentially examining the implications of the pattern of market exchange rates as of January 1, 2010 for how misaligned currencies were at that time, assuming that the FEERs estimated in June 2009 were correct. In this publication we have estimated the FEERs anew on the basis of revisions in the methods employed and new data presented in the April 2010 WEO, after incorporating adjustments to the IMF forecast needed to take account of recent changes in exchange rates and especially the euro.
Topic:
International Relations, Economics, International Monetary Fund, and Monetary Policy

274. Higher Taxes on Multinationals Would Hurt US Workers and Exports

Author:
Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Theodore H. Moran
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
As presidential candidate, Barack Obama repeatedly advocated tax “reforms” aimed squarely at US-based multinational enterprises (MNEs). As president, he again declared—in the same State of the Union address that laid out an ambitious goal for export expansion—that “it is time to finally slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas, and give those tax breaks to companies that create jobs right here in the United States of America."
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Monetary Policy
Political Geography:
United States

275. The Constitutionalization of Money

Author:
James M. Buchanan
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The market will not work effectively with monetary anarchy. Politicization is not an effective alternative. We must commence meaningful dialogue with acceptance of these elementary verities. Far too much has been said and written in elaboration of the first statement, which too often is taken to be equivalent to the assertion that "capitalism" or "the market" has failed. Admittedly claims for market efficacy without qualifiers can be found. But economists should know that anarchy can only generate disorder rather than its opposite.
Topic:
Markets and Monetary Policy
Political Geography:
United States

276. The World Economy: Bottoming Out or a Respite before the Next Crunch?

Author:
Eswar Prasad
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
In early 2009, the world economy seemed to be headed into an irreversible decline. But a strong dose of stimulative monetary and fiscal policies—perhaps with an assist from the natural resilience of the market economy—seem to have done the trick in stabilizing the financial system and setting the stage for global recovery. Flows of private capital to emerging markets have revived and world trade has begun to rise back to levels seen before the crisis hit. Consumer and business confidence are back on the rise.
Topic:
Markets and Monetary Policy

277. Plunder! How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives, and Bankrupting the Nation

Author:
Chris Edwards
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that there are more union members in the public sector than in the private sector in the United States. Thirty-nine percent of state and local government workers are members of unions, compared to just 7 percent of private sector workers. What problems are caused by the high level of public sector unionism?
Topic:
Monetary Policy
Political Geography:
United States

278. The Non-Americanization of European Regulatory Styles: Data Privacy Regulation in France, Germany, Italy, and Britain

Author:
Francesca Bignami
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
European countries have experienced massive structural transformation over the past twenty-five years with the privatization of state-owned industries, the liberalization of markets, and the rise of the European Union. According to one prominent line of analysis, these changes have led to the Americanization of European regulatory styles: previously informal and cooperative modes of regulation are becoming adversarial and litigation-driven, similar to the American system. This article explores the Americanization hypothesis with a structured comparison of data privacy regulation in four countries (France, Britain, Germany, and Italy) and a review of three other policy areas. It finds that European regulatory systems are converging, but not on American-style litigation, rather on an administrative model of deterrence-oriented regulatory enforcement and industry self-regulation. The explanation for this emerging regulatory strategy is to be found in government responses to market liberalization, as well as the pressure created by the governance process of the European Union.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Monetary Policy
Political Geography:
Britain, Europe, France, Germany, and Italy

279. Reform of the Global Financial Architecture

Author:
Edwin M. Truman and Garry J. Schinasi
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
This paper examines the implications of the global financial crisis of 2007–10 for reform of the global financial architecture, in particular the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board and their interaction. These two institutions are not fully comparable, but they must work more closely in the future to help prevent global financial crises. To this end, the paper identifies institutional and substantive reforms separately and in their joint work that would be desirable and appropriate.
Topic:
Economics, International Cooperation, International Political Economy, Global Recession, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis

280. Currency Wars?

Author:
William R. Cline and John Williamson
Publication Date:
11-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
A widespread currency war is in prospect. The term was first introduced by Guido Mantega, the finance minster of Brazil. He envisaged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) developing an index that measures whether currencies are held artificially low to boost exports (popularly referred to as “currency manipulation”). If that IMF exercise did not lead to an easing of such exchange market intervention, he suggested that an undervalued exchange rate could eventually be considered a commercial subsidy.
Topic:
Economics, International Cooperation, International Trade and Finance, and Monetary Policy
Political Geography:
Brazil