Product Description: Barry Eichengreen, doctorado en Yale y estudioso de los fenómenos financieros mundiales, comienza su libro diciendo: "el problema de la crisis siempre estará con nosotros [...] A pesar de esta revelación, ni yo ni cualquier otro de los supuestos expertos en la anatomía de las crisis financieras entendimos que los primeros años de la presente década constituían la antesala a la crisis financiera global más seria de los últimos 80 años, o que el epicentro sería Estados Unidos"...read more

In 1945, many Europeans still heated with coal, cooled their food with ice, and lacked indoor plumbing. Today, things could hardly be more different. Over the second half of the twentieth century, the average European's buying power tripled, while working hours fell by a third. The European Economy since 1945 is a broad, accessible, forthright account of the extraordinary development of Europe's economy since the end of World War II. Barry Eichengreen argues that the continent's history has been critical to its economic performance, and that it will continue to be so going forward. Challenging standard views that basic economic forces were behind postwar Europe's success, Eichengreen shows how Western Europe in particular inherited a set of institutions singularly well suited to the economic circumstances that reigned for almost three decades. Economic growth was facilitated by solidarity-centered trade unions, cohesive employers' associations, and growth-minded governments--all legacies of Europe's earlier history. For example, these institutions worked together to mobilize savings, finance investment, and stabilize wages. However, this inheritance of economic and social institutions that was the solution until around 1973--when Europe had to switch from growth based on brute-force investment and the acquisition of known technologies to growth based on increased efficiency and innovation--then became the problem. Thus, the key questions for the future are whether Europe and its constituent nations can now adapt their institutions to the needs of a globalized knowledge economy, and whether in doing so, the continent's distinctive history will be an obstacle or an asset.

The rise of Asia, and China specifically, is the single most important force reshaping the world economy at the beginning of the 21st century. From a low of 20 per cent in 1950, Asia's share of global GDP has now risen to 33 per cent and will exceed 40 per cent within a generation if current forecasts are realized. Asia's growing weight in the world economy is elevating it to a central position in global economic and financial affairs. The potential global impact of this astonishing growth is far reaching, from oil markets and the environment to a reshaping of trade relations in the current multilateral system dominated by the WTO. This collection of original essays written by leading economists explores the likely impact of the rapid growth in the East Asian economies, and in particular China, on the world economy in the coming decades and the consequent challenges for the development of trade, macroeconomic, and environmental policy.

Product Description: The unprecedented accumulation of international reserves by emerging markets raises the question of how to best utilize those funds. Should they be held as a war chest to guard against the risk of financial crisis? Or should they be used to recapitalize weak banking systems, following the example of China? Should it be used as an insurance fund to protect economies from the effects of capital account crises? This paper considers these and other questions with reference to the case of Latin America and the Caribbean and, in particular from the point of view of the Andean countries participating in the Latin American Reserve Fund...read more

Product Description: Since the successful first edition of The Gold Standard in Theory and History was published in 1985, much new research has been completed. This updated version contains five new essays including:* post 1990 literature on exchange rate target zones* a discussion of the light shed by the gold standard on the European Monetary Union debate* a new introduction by Eichengreen with Marc FlandreauThis will be an invaluable resource for students of macroeconomics, international economics and economic history at all levels...read more