The management of the exchange rate by the Russian authorities obviously lacks both effectiveness and efficiency. "Black Tuesday" has vividly shown how vulnerable the rouble is to speculative attacks. In this article, a "classical" proposal is evoked and is discussed as an alternative to the...

Historically, the world payments system has been dominated by a single currency accepted in the exchange of goods and assets among countries. In recent decades, the US dollar has played this role. The dollar acts as a 'vehicle currency' in the sense that agents in non-dollar economies will...