Problems of a world monetary order
- New York Oxford Univ. Press 1974
- 305 p.
This volume is the second in the author's trilogy of books which offer a new approach to policy analysis in international economic affairs. Through the study of actual policy-making situations, the reader is able to understand the complexity and controversy of international economic policy analysis and to discover the criteria for judging the merits of alternative courses of action.
Problems of a World Monetary Order directly involves the reader in three policy situations relating to the attainment of new international monetary arrangements. These problem-areas call for diagnosis of the postwar international monetary system and its series of currency crises, evaluation of the special roles of the dollar and United States balance-of payments policy, and assessment of proposals for a reformed Bretton Woods system.
The problems provide an historical perspective on recurrent policy issues in the world monetary system from the Bretton Woods conference of 1944 to the Nairobi meeting of 1973. They also present the implica tions of recent international monetary events for future reform of the exchange-rate regime and international liquidity. Integrating source materials with an analytical narrative, these problems facilitate the application of the principles of international monetary economics to the basic policy issues involved in constructing a new world monetary order. Professor Meier stresses the fact that although the problems build upon a sequence of specific events, their underlying design is to use the events to illuminate the fundamental and longer-term principles and policy issues.
The first volume in Professor Meier's series of books in international political economy, Problems of Trade Policy, was published in 1973. The third volume, Problems of Cooperation for Development, is forth coming.