This article lays out the general economic principles of exchange rate policy and provides an overview of the four country cases that have been included in this special edition of the journal: Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela. Three main currency regimes are discussed: the fixed but...

The balance-of-payment crisis literature can offer the basis to understand the current economic turmoil in Brazil. According to the author's calculations, the real exchange rate requires a 15% to 20% devaluation so as to assure that the intertemporal balance-of-payments constraint is not...