4 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
The Political Economy of Failure: The Euro as an International Currency
How do international currencies get established and consolidated? What domestic and international political foundations support an international currency? And what kinds of macro-economic flows enable an international currency? In this essay we consider these perennial questions of modern IPE scholarship in reverse order to ask whether the euro could ever have become, or seek to become, a true international currency rivalling the US dollar, used not only for passive foreign exchange reserves but also as a major commercial currency outside the EU. We argue that the EU lacks the will, the ideas and the capacity to promote the euro into the status of an international currency. In this article, we concentrate on this final issue of capacity, as the will and ideas issues have already been well explored. Capacity is an issue coeval with, if not prior to, the first two issues. The EU's current institutional arrangements and its economic geography create macro-economic consequences that diminish the euro's capacity to operate as a top currency. These conflicts go beyond the well-recognized issue that the euro-zone is not an optimum currency area. Examining the euro's debilities sheds light not only on the euro's (in)capacity to rival the dollar as an international currency, but also on the future of both the euro and the dollar in the aftermath of the euro-zone crisis
Taxa de juros: comportamento, determinação e implicações para a economia brasileira Interest rate: its behavior, determination, and implications for the Brazilian economy
O objetivo principal deste trabalho Ă© analisar o comportamento e os fatores determinantes da taxa de juros e seus efeitos sobre a condução da polĂtica macroeconĂ´mica no Brasil desde julho de 1994. Assim, tenta responder Ă s seguintes questões: Por que as taxas reais de juros sĂŁo altas? Quais sĂŁo as forças que realmente as determinam? Quais sĂŁo as implicações para a economia, se essas permanecerem altas? O que pode ser feito para reduzir os seus nĂveis atuais? Os resultados obtidos mostraram que as causas principais das altas taxas de juros se encontram no âmbito de reduzir e controlar a taxa de inflação, na vulnerabilidade do setor externo, na alta dĂvida pĂşblica e na estrutura de mercado bancário. Inclusive, constatou-se que as altas taxas de juros tĂŞm efeitos perversos e nĂŁo condizentes, tanto para o crescimento como para a estabilidade econĂ´mica. Para diminuĂ-las foram sugeridas recomendações no campo da polĂtica monetária, polĂtica fiscal, setor externo e polĂtica de concorrĂŞncia.<br>The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the behavior and the factors that determine the interest rate and its impact on conducting the macroeconomic policy in Brazil through the period of July 1994 to August 2004. Thus, the article attempts to address answers for three main questions: why real interest rates are high in Brazil and what are the main forces that stand behind their determination? What are the economic implications if real interest rates remain high? What can be done to reduce real interest rates from their present levels? Results obtained show that the main reasons for high real interest rates were found to be in: reducing and controlling the high rates of inflation, vulnerability of the foreign sector, high public debt, and the market structure of the banking sector. More over, it was argued that high real interest rates have perverse effects for economic growth and economic stability. To reduce interest rates from their present levels, certain recommendations were suggested with regard to monetary policy, fiscal policy, foreign sector, and competitive policy in the banking system