It is the season of dollar panic. These panic-mongers are varied: gold bugs, fiscal hawks and many others agree that the dollar, the dominant currency since the first world war, is on its death bed. Hyperinflationary collapse is in store. Does this make sense? No. All the same, the dollar-based global monetary system is defective. It would be good to start building alternative arrangements.

Continue reading "The rumours of the dollar’s death are much exaggerated"

From the FT:

Wolfgang Münchau: Making the case for a weaker dollar

Alan Rappeport: US trade gap unexpectedly narrows in August

Editorial comment: US jobs subsidies

Roger Altman: How to avoid greenback grief

John Authers: Manufactured surprises will keep stocks rolling

Elsewhere:

James Hamilton, Econbrowser: Will stimulating nominal aggregate demand solve our problems?

Brad Delong on the wisdom of more fiscal stimulus

Paul Krugman, NYT: The madness of the monetary hawks

James Kwak, Baseline Scenario: “What’s wrong with a phone call?” - How Wall Street influences Washington

Alan S. Blinder, VOX EU: 25 per cent of US jobs are offshorable

From the FT:

Dave Shellock: Overview: gold hits record high as dollar tumbles

Martin Sandbu: The dollar: It would take a revolution to overthrow the greenback

Jennifer Hughes: Mighty dollar turns a paler green

Elsewhere:

Neal Kimberley, Reuters Blog: “Dollar demise”: Inexorable but not sudden

Menzie Chinn, Econbrowser: The Dollar in Doubt?

Simon Johnson, Peterson Institute: Obama’s secret jobs plan; the dollar plunge

Dean Baker, CEPR: Big Deficit Bob Rubin and the Strong Dollar

By James W Dean and Richard G Lipsey

The enormous stimulus packages hastily put together by governments in most large economies encounter two sorts of criticisms from many conservative economists. Both criticisms are wrong.

The first is that spending will either be hurried and wasteful, or that it won’t come on stream until employment has recovered, and will therefore be inflationary. Continue reading "Will stimulus spending stifle recovery?"

The following is Martin Wolf’s testimony to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in the US, March 25, 2009

We are experiencing the most dangerous financial and economic crisis since the 1930s. But it is also a crisis for foreign policy: a deep recession will shake political stability a across the globe; and it threatens the long-standing US goal of an open and dynamic global economy. Perhaps most important, the US is currently seen as the source of the problem rather than the solution.

This crisis is, therefore, a devastating blow to US credibility and legitimacy across the world. If the US cannot manage free-market capitalism, who can? If free-market capitalism can bring such damage, why adopt it? If openness to the world economy brings such dangers, why risk it? As the shock turns to anger, not just in the US, but across the world, these questions are being asked. If the US wishes to obtain the right answers, it must address the crisis at home, and do what it can to rescue innocent victims abroad. This is not a matter of charity. It is a matter of enlightened self-interest.
Continue reading "US foreign policy and the global financial crisis"