The current world economic crisis has hit Latin America very hard. Although financial conditions have deteriorated, particularly since September 2008, the financial shock has been less severe than during the two previous crises. Thanks to improvements in external balance sheets, there has been...

Latin American has the longest history of regional integration efforts in the developing world. This paper analyzes the experience of regional monetary cooperation in Latin America over the past three decades. This experience has been overall successful but also uneven, both in terms of country...

This paper analyses three major problems of the current international monetary system: the asymmetric-adjustment problem, dependence on the monetary policy of the main reserveissuing country, and the large demand for self-insurance by developing countries. It then proposes two reform routes:...

This paper offers three guiding principles for a better relationship between the economy and democracy: democracy as the extension of citizenship; democracy as diversity; and democracy as complementary to clear, strong macroeconomic rules. This view, it is argued, implies that economic and...

The major task of a development-friendly international financial architecture is to mitigate pro-cyclical effects of financial markets and open “policy space” for counter-cyclical macroeconomic policies in the developing world. This paper explores a series of policy instruments for this...

This paper recommends a broad concept of macroeconomic stability, whereby “sound macroeconomic frameworks” include not only price stability and sound fiscal policies, but also a well-functioning real economy, sustainable debt ratios and healthy public and private sector balance sheets. These...

This paper underscores the need to overcome the fundamental problems of the "Washington Consensus" that have not been entirely solved in its recent reformulations calling for a "second generation of reforms." Such problems are its narrow view of macroeconomic stability; its disregard for the...