RM - Robert Mundell on USAgold

Part 1

Exchange Rates, Currency Areas and the International Financial Architecture

by Dr. Robert A. Mundell, Columbia University
1999 Nobel Laureate Economics

 Remarks delivered at an IMF panel, September 22, 2000, Prague, Czech Republic.

"It is important to realize the significance of the change that has come upon the world with the creation of the euro. We no longer think in terms of flexible exchange rates, but rather of currency areas. And increasingly, we will no longer think of a dollar-dominated international monetary arrangement but one in which the power is shared by the dollar, euro and yen areas, with a residual amount of power held by the IMF representing the other countries. This is in my view a great step forward, because it will bring forth new and for once meaningful ideas about reform of the international financial architecture. The euro promises to be a catalyst for international monetary reform...."

Alternative Monetary Targets

"...If international financial architecture has any meaning at all, it applies to the exchange rate arrangements at the core of the world economy, the anchor for achieving and numeraire for measuring global price stability, and management of a world currency, if one exists. In other words there is no financial architecture today, and the problem of reform is to create it...."

Source: Exchange Rates, Currency Areas and the International Financial Architecture



Part 2


Nobel Laureate Robert Mundell: 'Ahead of his Time'

by Laura Wallace, International Monetary Fund


"Editor's Note: In doing some judicious pruning of the Gilded Opinion index, we decided to leave this portrait as a standing tribute to the visionary Dr. Mundell. Long before gold became fashionable discussion fare among economists and policy-makers, Mundell was one of its most ardent advocates among his colleagues. Considered by many to be the "father of the euro, he suggested its use as a monetary asset in the contruction of that currency. If the world monetary system is to include gold as part of its make-up, Mundell's thinking likely will play a significant role. Dr. Mundell is and remains truly a man ahead of his time...."

Source: Nobel Laureate Robert Mundell: 'Ahead of his Time'

[Mrt: re-discovering is fun]