Written for a PIIE conference on the 50th anniversary of floating exchange rates, this paper deals with possible alternatives to a unipolar dollar-based system. It considers (1) measures of international currency use; (2) potential challengers to the dollar; (3) network externalities; and (4) the...

This comment discusses the issues regarding the scale of conditional finance offered by the International Monetary Fund in recent rescue packages, and the related issues regarding a true lender of last resort. It reviews critiques of the Fund?s performance in recent emerging-market crises,...