The evidence of the East Asian crisis is now in, and does indeed point to the conclusion that weaknesses in the financial systems and free capital mobility played a central role in propagating and deepening the crisis. All the crisis countries had essentially opened themselves to uncontrolled...

This paper assumes that the major industrial countries (and probably most other major countries) will continue to employ inflation targeting and allow their exchange rates to float, in the sense of accepting no obligation to hold the rate at any particular level. However, it points out that...

The macroeconomic regime implanted in Brazil during the second administration of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and largely maintained by his successor, is typical of those of the advanced countries. The anchor is provided by an inflation-targeting regime (with a target inflation rate somewhat...

Much of the paper is devoted to expounding the standard model of the exchange rate accepted by most economists today. This regards the exchange rate as a forward-looking asset price. Its steady-state level is determined by the need to have a current account balance that will keep the debt/gross...

The paper summarizes the current theory of how a floating exchange rate is determined, dividing the subject into what determines the steady state and what determines the transition to steady state. The inadequacies of this model are examined, and an alternative quot;behavioralquot; model, which...