The International Circuit of Key Currencies and the Global Crisis: Is there Scope for Reform?

In this Working Paper, PERI Research Associate Lilia Costabile explores the potential causal links running from our international monetary system to global imbalances, and from these to the crisis. She asks whether the global imbalances contribute to the current crisis, whether these imbalances are, in turn, favored by, or rooted in, the current organization of the international monetary system, and whether a Keynesian monetary system reformed might cut some of the causes of global crises at their roots. Answering these with three qualified ‘yeses,’ Costabile considers possible remedies and considers some alternative interpretations of the global crisis.