In December 1995, the European Council, metting in Madrid, confirmed "unequivocally" that the third and final stage of economic and monetary union (EMU) will begin on January 1, 1999. The Council chose "euro" as the name of the new single currency and adopted a timetable for decisions and...

In September 1997, at its Hong Kong meeting, the Interim Committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) adopted a statement on the liberalization of international capital movements. It asked the executive boeard of the Fund to complete work on an amendment to the IMF's Articles of Agreement...

This essay examines the connection between the establishment of a common market and additional moves to monetary and political union. It then reviews both the monetary and fiscal aspects of ninteenth-century German unification. Finally, it discusses what modern Europe can and should learn from...

Monetary and financial stability are of central importance to the effective functioning of a market economy. They provide the basis for rational decisionmaking about the allocation of real resources through time and therefore improve the climate for saving and investment.

This essay considers strategies that developing and emerging-market economies might use when seeking to exit from currency pegs. It also considers techniques for completing the move to greater flexibility, as well as the scope for adopting inflation targeting as a nominal anchor following an...

This essay offers an analysis of actual German and Swiss monetary policy that explains this gap between operation and performance. It shows that neither country's central bank can be called a monetary targeter, according to a strict, formal definition of targeting, and it argues that the...

The fifteen newly independent republics of the former Soviet Union began 1992 with a functionning ruble area inherited from the Soviet union. Indeed, early that year, the ruble was atop the currency hit parade; no other currency served as sole legal tender across so many national borders. This...

This paper is about the financial support fund of the OECD.

This essay takes a fresh look at the lender-of-last-resort issue and asks whether, how, and to what extent national practices should be adapted to the international environment. It begins by reviewing national practices. Then it analyzes, through both theory and evidence, the features that make...

This lecture is about the connections between three types of union - customs union, monetary union, and political union. The first section asks whether monetary integration is a concomitant of commercial integration. The second asks whether political integration is a concomitant of monetary...