Comprehensive financial history of the seven of the World's major currencies

From the Preface: In addition to its insightful analysis of the public policy implications of the Canadian dollar, this monograph does much more. In Chapter 1 it sets the stage and presents a number of popular fallacious views about the dollar crisis. Chapter 2 examines recent trends in unemployment, inflation, domestic and foreign interest rates, and in the value of our dollar in terms of the U.S. dollar and other major currencies. Chapter 3 then proceeds with an analysis of the fundamental factors determining the international value of the Canadian dollar in the long run. The short-run factors determining the dollar's value are addressed in Chapter 4, followed by a discussion of the relationship between interest rates and the dollar in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 investigates the reasons for the most recent decline in the dollar and considers what, if anything, can and should be done about it. The final chapter deals with the question of whether we should be losing any sleep over the problems of the Canadian dollar.

Financial market turmoil grabbed headlines in the nineties. Many countries, most notably in East Asia, saw their currencies collapse and output plummet. Economic shock waves from these crises hit Canada. In this collection of essays, distinguished contributors such as Linda McQuaig, Jacques Parizeau and Douglas Peters go behind the headlines. They explain the roots of international financial market turmoil and suggest reforms that will bring greater stability to the global economy and to the lives of the people who participate in it. They assert that financial markets are inherently unstable and argue for strong regulation. Out of Control offers clear-headed analyses of the market turmoil of the 1990s and suggestions to minimize such volatility in future.

First published in the mid-1970s, Inflation or Depression attributes the contemporary world economic crisis to the post-Vietnam War decline of the U.S. as a preeminent world economic power. Rather than offering abstract economic theory, Gonick's analysis is based on the actual behaviour of multinational corporations, on the links that bind Western economies together, and on the limitations determining the economic policies of Canada and other countries. The author traces a consistent pattern by which U.S. policymakers intentionally exported their economic problems abroad during the early '70s. Inflation or Depression offers a bold interpretation of the malaise affecting the world economy at the beginning of the 1970s.