An examination of the role of the dollar in the global financial system which presents a long-term historical perspective on the international monetary system in this century. The main focus is on the evaluation of the global financial system in the post-war period.

Negotiations on a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) were officially launched at the Santiago Summit in April 1998. This study examines the prospects for the FTAA in light of recent economic and political turmoil in Latin America and the continuing impasse over US "fast-track" authority. The study evaluates progress to date in the trade talks and proposals for accelerating the target date of January 2005 for concluding negotiations, and it takes into account the results of the April 2001 Quebec Summit. It surveys regional interests in the wide-ranging negotiating agenda and assesses the...

After nearly five decades of insulation from world markets, state controls, and slow growth, India embarked in 1991 on a process of liberalization of controls and progressive integration with the global economy in an effort to put its economy on a path of rapid and sustained growth. Despite major changes in the government since then, the thrust on reforms has been maintained. According to the World Bank, only 10 out of 145 countries had more rapid growth than India at over 6 percent per year in the 1990s and two had the same as India's.

In this study, T. N. Srinivasan and Suresh D....

For more than three decades, the United States has conducted a unique Japan-specific economic policy. This policy was motivated by Japan's economic size and dynamism, fears that a unique "Japanese model of capitalism" enabled it to compete unfairly and threaten American prosperity during a period of prolonged US economic difficulties, and that the United States had unique capabilities to induce policy change in Japan due to its provision of security guarantees. No More Bashing argues that these assessments are mistaken and that the United States should abandon its Japan-specific...

Building on the scholarship of Dollar Overvaluation and the World Economy (2003), this book assesses the progress that has been made to date in correcting the sizable misalignments of key national currencies that developed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The book examines whether a dollar decline is needed for the United States and the rest of the world to achieve sustainable current account positions and what the impact of a major dollar realignment would be on economies around the world. It also features new ideas on the effectiveness of intervention in moving exchange rates in a...

What are the key foreign economic policy issues facing the United States in the second half of this decade? How can the administration and Congress meet the economic challenges that lie ahead? This new book analyzes the dramatic importance of the world economy to both the domestic prosperity and overall foreign policy of the United States, describes the new global environment (e.g., the rise of China as a global economic superpower and the completion of European unification) in which US policy must operate, and proposes major US initiatives on a wide range of international economic issues,...

For centuries, China has proven difficult for Americans to understand. Today, however, China is becoming one of the most powerful countries in the world. As the 21st century unfurls, the stakes have never been higher for getting US policy toward China right. The direction that China and US-China relations take will define the strategic future of the world for years to come. No relationship matters more--for better or for worse--in resolving the enduring challenges of our time: maintaining stability among great powers, sustaining global economic growth, stemming dangerous weapons...

China has emerged as an economic powerhouse (projected to have the largest economy in the world in a little over a decade) and is taking an ever-increasing role on the world stage. China's Rise: Challenges and Opportunities will help the United States and the rest of the world better comprehend the facts and dynamics underpinning China's rise--an understanding that becomes more and more important with each passing day. Additionally, the authors suggest actions both China and the United States can take that will not only maximize the opportunities for China's constructive integration...

The Mexican peso crisis struck in late December 1994, coinciding with a new Mexican administration and the end of the first year of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The crisis poignantly highlighted the success and the inadequacy of the treaty--success in the expansion of trade and capital flows, and inadequacy in institutional capacity. The Canadian, Mexican, and US governments defined the agreement so narrowly that they failed to devise a mechanism that could monitor, anticipate, plan, or even respond to such a serious problem. The president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, has...

This Special Report looks at the long-run prospects for the international economic position of the United States, with particular focus on the likely evolution of the current account deficit and prospective foreign financing for it. Its goal is to provide a fundamental framework for the development of US fiscal and other economic policies, especially including responses to the global financial and economic crisis of 2008--09. The central message is that the long-run outlook is extremely worrisome and potentially very costly--in foreign policy/national security as well as economic terms. As...