In light of the problems besetting the eurozone, this policy brief examines the contributions of John Maynard Keynes and Richard Kahn to early debates over the design of the postwar international financial system. Their critical engagement with the early policy challenges associated with...

This paper imagines a world in which countries are on the Bitcoin standard, a monetary system in which all media of exchange are Bitcoin or are backed by it. The paper explores the similarities and differences between the Bitcoin standard and the gold standard and describes the media of exchange...

The problems posed by monetary policy cannot be dealt with by legislating enduring policy rules. With the passage of time, economic understanding does not systematically converge ever more closely on a "true" model of the economy, a process which is now sufficiently far along that our current...

We develop a simple model that highlights the costs and benefits of fixed exchange rates as they relate to trade, and show that negative export-price shocks reduce fiscal revenue and increase the likelihood of an expected currency devaluation. Using a new high-frequency data set on...

The Great Depression was the most devastating and destructive economic event to afflict the global economy since the beginning of the twentieth century. What, then, were the origins of the Great Depression and what have we learned about the appropriate policy responses to economic depressions...

I. Crisis: The road to Geneva: 1921-1922 -- Making sense of hyperinflation: 1921-1922 -- How to kill a hyperinflation: 1922 -- Control: The inception of control, 1923-1924 -- Reconstructions at the crossroad: 1924 -- The politics of control: 1925-1926 -- Collapse: The precedence of politics:...

Against the backdrop of an unstable international monetary system centred around the US dollar and very dim prospects of reforming this system, this article analyses the rationale for the unilateral introduction of gold-backed currencies and the challenges and problems associated with such a...

If emerging markets are to achieve their objective of joining the ranks of industrialized, developed countries, they must use their economic and political influence to support radical change in the international financial system. This working paper recommends John Maynard Keynes's "clearing...

Expectations of Sterling returning to Gold have been disregarded in empirical work on the US dollar - Sterling exchange rate in the early 1920s. We incorporate such considerations in a PPP model of the exchange rate, letting the probability of a return to gold follow a logistic function. We draw...

The great depression of 1929 and the great financial crisis of 2008 have been the two big events of the last 75 years. Not only have they produced serious economic consequences but they also changed our view of economics and policymaking. The aim of this work is to compare these two great crises...

This paper examines an uncovered interest parity (UIP) condition that arguably held as regards the continental investment demand for London bills of exchange during the classical gold standard. At that time, practical guide books about the foreign exchanges explained in detail how exchange and...

Against the backdrop of an unstable international monetary system centred around the US dollar and very dim prospects of reforming this system, this article analyses the rationale for the unilateral introduction of gold-backed currencies and the challenges and problems associated with such a...

The beginnings of central bank cooperation: Tokyo and London, 1895-1914 -- World war and globalization -- Japan emerges as an international creditor, 1915-1918 -- Postwar alignment -- Wall street discovers Japan, Spring 1920 -- Putting the program into action, 1920-1928 -- Making a market:...