The fiftieth anniversary of the Bretton Woods Conference served as an opportunity to reappraise the desirability of strengthening the IMF's oversight of the functioning of the international monetary system. Whatever the design of an exchange rate system and the arrangements for the provision of international liquidity, it is widely accepted that to be effective such oversight must rest on a strong analytic foundation. These two volumes, edited by Jacob A. Frenkel and Morris Goldstein, present 30 analytic papers on the system as it functioned during 1987-91 and aim at conveying the flavor of those issues that commanded close attention in the Fund's research program.

This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the causes and implications of the 1992-3 crisis of the exchange rate mechanism.

With the start of EMU, the Eurosystem has taken over monetary policy for the 11 countries of the Euro-area. But the division of powers within the Eurosystem, between the European Central Bank and the constituent National Central Banks, is not satisfactory. This volume provides an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Eurosystem and offers concrete proposals concerning the decision-making organs, balance sheets and the distribution of seigniorage.

Comprehensive 200-page overview of the ECB from its inception in June 1998 until the present day.

Monetary integration in the EC will continue with the desired hardening of the European Monetary System that is expected to lead to an EC central bank in the 1990s. Why has the European Monetary System been so successful and what role has the Deutsche Bundesbank played in monetary policy and the EMS in Europe? This book gives an assessment of the EMS developments and its stability record, analyzes the impact of German monetary unification and shows how financial market liberalization as well as the EC 1992 project affect the process of Economic and Monetary Union. The progress in the EMS is occuring in a period of both thorough changes in the U.K. and in European East-West relations and global economic changes. The problems of EC monetary union and EC central banking are discussed and questions of the transition phase of monetary policy are raised. The further progress of EMU - including the creation of an EC central bank - is analyzed both theoretically and from a political-economy perspective. Creating a common central bank and an EC currency raises new issues for the consistency of monetary and fiscal policy in Europe, where U.S. experiences provide valuable insights.

The European Community is negotiating a new treaty to establish the constitutional foundations of an economic and monetary union in the course of the 1990s. This study provides the only comprehensive guide to the economic implications of economic and monetary union. The work of an economist inside the Commission of the European Community, it reflects the considerations influencing the design of the union. The study creates a unique bridge between the insights of modern economic analysis and the work of the policy makers preparing for economic and monetary union.

"The book contains a collection of articles on the European Union and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), the Eurosystem, monetary law, central bank independence and central bank statutes as well as on financial law. The authors are current or former members of the Legal Committee of the ESCB (LEGCO). This book commemorates ten years of work by the Working Group of Legal Experts of the European Monetary Institute and by the LEGCO. It is dedicated to Mr Paolo Zamboni Garavelli, former Head of the Legal Department at the Banca d'Italia and member of LEGCO, who died in 2004."--Editor.