The traditional monetary arrangement, in which a country uses and manages a distinct money, has several strong advantages, but countries have increasingly been adopting other arrangements: currency unions, use of another country's currency, and currency boards. Countries entering into a monetary...

Cline and Williamson present estimates of the fundamental equilibrium exchange rates (FEERs) of leading advanced and emerging-market economies: The US dollar remains significantly overvalued against a number of Asian currencies, most prominently the Chinese renminbi and, to a lesser extent, the...

The world economy faces a grave danger from the large imbalances in current account positions. Policymakers should not wait until financial markets force global adjustment. They should initiate a credible, comprehensive adjustment program to reduce the risks of a crisis, which could produce a...

For their own benefit and that of the rest of the world, East Asia should adopt a basket of currencies as the numeraire for their exchange rates instead of the dollar. It would be particularly advantageous to them if they were all to adopt the same basket. Such a basket would prevent variations...

A large measure of consensus exists about the substantive content of successful economic policy reform--macroeconomic discipline, microeconomic liberalization, and participation in the global economy--that is needed for an economy to enter the modern world. There is much less consensus on the...

This study brings readers up to date on the complicated and controversial subject of debt relief for the poorest countries of the world. What has actually been achieved? Has debt relief provided truly additional resources to fight poverty? How will the design and timing of the "enhanced Heavily...

The dollar rose by about 35 percent in real terms from 1995 through the end of 2001, supporting the booming US economy of the late 1990s but pushing the current account deficit to a record high of almost 5 percent of GDP. This special report provides alternative views of how large a dollar...

In the aftermath of the Asian/global financial crises of 1997-98, howshould emerging markets now structure their exchange rate systemsto prevent new crises from occurring? This study challengescurrent orthodoxy by advocating the revival of intermediate exchangerate regimes. In so doing,...

This study examines in detail the experiences of three countries that have in recent years operated exchange rate systems of "crawling bands," similar in spirit to the target zones that the author has recommended in the past. Williamson compares the succcessful experiences of 3 countries that...

Growing global imbalances threaten to induce a collapse of the dollar, which could in turn produce a severe recession in the rest of the world. This crisis could force countries to say "never again" and search for a system to prevent similar disasters. The system that could do so is a reference...