International Money: Postwar Trends and Theories

The period since the Second World War has been an eventful and often disturbing one in the international monetary field. Economic theories have been propounded and modified both to explain these events and to influence future choices made by economic actors. This history of international monetary relations shows both how theoretical development affected private developments, and how the theories themselves have been judged - and often discarded - on the basis of their perceived accordance with actuality. Exchange rate movements in particular are examined in the light of the absence of any generally accepted fundamental model, and the author deploys here his own theory based on the idea of bounded rationality. Finally, he looks ahead to future possibilities for the international monetary system. New in the Second Edition Fully revised and updated Includes an account of the EMS up till the end of 1995 Fuller theoretical coverage of fixed exchange rate systems, including the modelling of speculative attacks Covers chaos theory and near-rational behaviour Includes new sections on: speculators and speculative bubbles; target zones and other proposals for international monetary reform; the importance of free capital mobility and proposals to control capital movements