http://www.project-syndicate.org/series/the_next_financial_order <p><em>Will the euro or the SDR become the world’s major reserve currency, ending the decades-long reign of the dollar? Is a global financial regu lator necessary, or can greater cooperation among national authorities ensure financial stability? Can the IMF and World Bank be made more effective?</em></p> <p></p> en 2012-02-10T05:55:26+01:00 webmaster@project-syndicate.org Barry Eichengreen 1994-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 4 hourly http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen39/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen39/English>EICHENGREEN: Europe’s Tobin Tax Distraction</a> European leaders have revealed their top-secret plan for solving the euro’s crisis: a version of the “Tobin tax,” a levy on financial transactions first suggested in 1972. The only problem is that the tax was intended to solve an entirely different problem from those that afflict Europe today. Barry Eichengreen 2012-02-09T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen38/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen38/English>EICHENGREEN: Europe’s Vicious Spirals</a> While 2011 was supposed to be the year when European leaders finally got a grip on events, the eurozone’s problems went from bad to worse. The problem is not just that Europe faces a sovereign-debt crisis, but also that it faces a growth crisis, which worsens the debt problem. Barry Eichengreen 2012-01-11T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen37/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen37/English>EICHENGREEN: Disaster Can Wait</a> The coming year will not be one of crisis, but nor will it bring an end to our current economic troubles. Rather, for Europe, the US, and China, 2012 will be a year of muddling through. Barry Eichengreen 2011-12-09T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen36/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen36/English>EICHENGREEN: Europe’s Darkness at Noon</a> It may be hard to imagine that Europe’s crisis could worsen, but it just has. The Greek crisis will not go away until there is reason to hope that Greece can revive economic growth, while Italy and Portugal are heading into the same trap. Barry Eichengreen 2011-11-08T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen35/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen35/English>EICHENGREEN: Coco for Europe</a> After a year and half of delay and denial, Greece is about to restructure its debt. But this by itself will not be enough to draw a line under the eurozone’s existential crisis, for which so-called "contingent convertible bonds," or "cocos," might be the answer. Barry Eichengreen 2011-10-11T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen34/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen34/English>EICHENGREEN: Europe on the Verge of a Political Breakdown</a> If Europe is to avert the worst – a meltdown of the eurozone, if not of the EU itself – it is critical that European leaders distinguish what must be done now from what can be left for later. Indeed, unless they complete three urgent tasks, there will be no reason to discuss long-term reforms. Barry Eichengreen 2011-09-09T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen33/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen33/English>EICHENGREEN: What Can Replace the Dollar?</a> Already before the recent US debt-ceiling imbroglio, the dollar had begun losing its luster as a global reserve currency. But, with the euro facing serious problems of its own, what can replace the greenback? Barry Eichengreen 2011-08-11T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen32/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen32/English>EICHENGREEN: General Marshall on the Aegean</a> So far, the EU's Greek strategy has amounted to squeezing blood from a stone. Instead, Europeans might usefully look back 60 years, to a time when their own countries, perched on the brink of a similar collapse, received the help that they needed to recover – help that has put them in a position to do something similar for Greece today. Barry Eichengreen 2011-07-13T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen31/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen31/English>EICHENGREEN: How to Kill a Dollar</a> Many complain that the Fed's near-zero interest-rate policy is debasing the dollar and eroding the currency’s purchasing power. But, if there is a threat to the dollar, it stems not from monetary policy, but from the fiscal side. Barry Eichengreen 2011-06-09T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen30/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen30/English>EICHENGREEN: The Full Brady</a> Financial markets are increasingly certain that a Greek debt restructuring is coming. Fortunately, there is a way to avoid the worst: emulate the Brady Plan, under which commercial banks, together with official creditors, restructured and took haircuts on the debt of Latin American and Eastern European governments in the 1980’s. Barry Eichengreen 2011-05-10T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen29/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen29/English>EICHENGREEN: The Bear of Bretton Woods</a> In early April, leading thinkers and former policymakers met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, the birthplace in 1944 of the IMF and our dollar-centered international monetary system. This time around, it had already become clear that dollar will have to make way for the euro and renminbi. Barry Eichengreen 2011-04-11T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen28/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen28/English>EICHENGREEN: Slowing China</a> With the world’s rich countries still hungover from the financial crisis, the global economy has come to depend on emerging markets to drive growth. But Chinese officials warn that their economy is poised to slow – and this time they are right. Barry Eichengreen 2011-03-09T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen27/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen27/English>EICHENGREEN: Why Egypt Should Worry China</a> The revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, and protests elsewhere in the Arab world, largely reflect the fact that the benefits of growth have failed to trickle down to disaffected youth. China, with its armies of unemployed university graduates and poorly treated migrant workers, should take note. Barry Eichengreen 2011-02-08T00:00:00+01:00