Global Monetary Governance

Benjamin J. Cohen has been one of the most original and influential writers on international political economy. This book provides an overview of his contribution to the field, grouped around the central theme of global monetary governance. The book is divided into three sections:challenges to systemic governance - examines the challenge of governa

Benjamin J. Cohen has been one of the most original and influential writers on international political economy. This book provides an overview of his contribution to the field, grouped around the central theme of global monetary governance. The book is divided into three sections: challenges to systemic governance - examines the challenge of governance of the international monetary system looking at such crucial issues as monetary reform, the growth of capital markets and financial globalization dealing with financial crisis – looks at efforts to deal effectively with financial crises, analyzing the relationships between governments and banks in the management of international debt problems and the case for capital controls. There are case studies of the Asian financial crisis and several other key instances of instability in world markets the new geography of money – analyzes the crisis of legitimacy created by a global system where governing authority is exercised now more by market forces than by sovereign states. It explores the geopolitical implications of the competition between the two most widely used currencies in the world today, the US dollar and the Euro and spells out the main implications for policy makers. The concluding chapters evaluate the merits and prospects for the two most widely discussed policy alternatives available to governments responsible for the world’s many less competitive currencies – dollarization or monetary union.

The book sets forth the economic rationale for international financial regulation and what role, if any, international regulation can play in effectively managing systemic risk while providing accountability to all affected nations. The book suggests that a particular type of global governance structure is necessary to have more efficient regulation of the international financial system.

Rising powers pose challenges for global governance, substantively and institutionally, in the domain of financial and macroeconomic cooperation.

The traditional assumption holds that the territory of money coincides precisely with the political frontiers of each nation state: France has the franc, the United Kingdom has the pound, the United States has the dollar. But the disparity between that simple mental landscape and the actual organization of currency spaces has grown in recent years, as territorial boundaries of individual states limit currency circulation less and less. Many currencies are used outside their "home" country for transactions either between nations or within foreign states. In this book, Benjamin J. Cohen asks what this new geography of money reveals about financial and political power. Cohen shows how recent changes in the geography of money challenge state sovereignty. He examines the role of money and the scope of cross-border currency competition in today's world. Drawing on new work in geography and network theory to explain the new spatial organization of monetary relations, Cohen suggests that international relations, political as well as economic, are being dramatically reshaped by the increasing interpenetration of national monetary spaces. This process, he explains, generates tensions and insecurities as well as opportunities for cooperation.

Since the summer of 2007, the world scenario has been dominated by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis and its repercussions on global financial markets and economic growth. As banks around the world wrote down their losses and governments intervened to rescue domestic financial institutions, financial distress severely hit the real economy leading to what has been widely defined as the worst recession since the 1930s. Under these conditions, along with the immediate concern for stemming the effects of the crisis, policy-makers around the world have been debating the long-term measures that have to be adopted in order to reduce the likelihood of future crises and to ensure stable economic growth. Although this debate has not yet produced significant transformations, it indicates a renewed concern about the institutional architecture that is meant to govern the global economic and financial system. This book tackles the issue of what the governance of the global economic and financial system looks like and what the prospects for its reform are. Specifically, the book will address the following three main themes: Governance: What is governance in the international economic system? What forms does it take? How did it come about? How can we study it?; Functions of governance: What are the functions of global economic governance? Who performs them? What are the rules and mechanisms that make global governance possible? Problems and prospects of governance: What are the problems in global economic governance? Is there a trade-off between legitimacy and efficiency? What are the prospects for reform of global economic governance in the aftermath of the global financial crisis? This book will: _ Provide a thorough analysis of the issues at stake in designing international rules and institutions able to govern the global economy; _ Illustrate and analyze virtually all the main institutions, rules, and arrangements that make up global economic governance, inscribing them within the function these institutions, rules, and arrangements are meant to perform; _ Discuss the problems that affect today’s global economic governance and assess alternative proposals to reform the international financial architecture.

Global governance of international banks is breaking down after the Great Financial Crisis, as national regulators are withdrawing on their home turf. New evidence presented illustrates that the global systemically important banks underpin the global financial system. This book offers solutions for the effective governance of global banks.

The papers included in this book cover different aspects of the governance of the Bretton Woods institutions. They explore different options for reform and show that enhancing the participation of developing and emerging market countries in resolving the major monetary and financial problems confronting the world economy, would improve global economic performance and contribute to the elimination of world poverty.

Analyses governance structures for international finance, evaluates current regulatory reforms and proposes a new governance system for global financial markets.

Identifies the major weaknesses in the current United Nations system and proposes fundamental reforms to address each. This title is also available as Open Access.