When the Bretton Woods system collapsed in December 1971 the expectation was that a reformed monetary system could be introduced within a year or two. The following article discusses the question why, contrary to this general expectation, the international instability in payments still exists...

Among the various limitations put by the IMF on the free use of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) is the reconstitution requirement which binds participants in the Special Drawing Account to maintain a stipulated average level of allocated SDRs. Using the example of Zambia which is representative...