Table of Contents
Preface ix
1 Introduction 1
2 The Gold Standard 5
Prehistory 6
The Dilemmas of Bimetallism 7
The Lure of Bimetallism 11
The Advent of the Gold Standard 13
Shades of Gold 18
How the Gold Standard Worked 22
The Gold Standard as a Historically Specific Institution 27
International Solidarity 29
The Gold Standard and the Lender of Last Resort 32
Instability at the Periphery 35
The Stability of the System 38
3 Interwar Instability 41
Chronology 42
Experience with Floating: The Controversial Case of the Franc 46
Reconstructing the Gold Standard 53
The New Gold Standard 56
Problems of the New Gold Standard 59
The Pattern of International Payments 63
Responses to the Great Depression 66
Banking Crises and Their Management 69
Disintegration of the Gold Standard 71
Sterling's Crisis 74
The Dollar Follows 79
Managed Floating 81
Conclusions 84
4 The Bretton Woods System 86
Wartime Planning and Its Consequences 89
The Sterling Crisis and the Realignment of European Currencies 95
The European Payments Union 99
Payments Problems and Selective Controls 101
Convertibility: Problems and Progress 105
Special Drawing Rights 109
Declining Controls and Rising Rigidity 112
The Battle for Sterling 116
The Crisis of the Dollar 119
The Lessons of Bretton Woods 124
5 After Bretton Woods 127
Floating Exchange Rates in the 1970s 129
Floating Exchange Rates in the 1980s 135
The Snake 142
The European Monetary System 149
Renewed Impetus for Integration 155
Europe's Crisis 160
Understanding the Crisis 163
The Experience of Developing Countries 169
Conclusions 174
6 A Brave New Monetary World 175
The Asian Crisis 181
Emerging Instability 188
Global Imbalances 199
The Euro 207
International Currency Competition 214
7 A Decade of Crises 216
From Subprime Crisis to Global Financial Crisis 220
Greece's Crisis 223
The Grexit Option 229
Europe's Crisis 231
Currency Wars 236
China and the International System 238
Digital Future 243
8 Conclusion 247
Glossary 253
References 261
Index 277
