Book Description

Exchange Rate Chaos provides a much needed financial history of the US and UK in the postwar period. The author describes and compares developments in the financial markets and institutions of the two countries since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971 and puts them in their social and political context. ... Read more

Book Description

One aim of this book is to examine the causes of fluctuations in the mark/dollar, pound/dollar, and yen/dollar real exchange rates for the period 1972-1994 with quarterly data to determine appropriate policy recommendations to reduce these movements. A second aim is to investigate whether the three real exchange rates are covariance-stationary or not and to which extent they are covariance-stationary, respectively. These aims are reached by using a two-country overshooting model for real exchange rates with real government expenditure and by applying Johansen's maximum likelihood cointegration procedure and a factor model of Gonzalo and Granger to this model. ... Read more

Book Description

The experiences of the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the European Community have highlighted the difficulties of exchange rate control.Exchange Rate Determination and Control investigates the determinants of exchange rates and evaluates the main options for policy makers in limiting exchange rate fluctuations, drawing on the empirical evidence of the experiences of the G7 countries over the last two decades. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

In his 1972 Janeway Lectures at Princeton, James Tobin, the 1981 Nobel Prize winner for economics, submitted a proposal for a levy on international currency transactions. The idea was not greeted with enthusiasm, as the 1970s were a period of optimism and confidence in floating exchange rages. Yet, whenever currency crises erupted during the past decades, the proposal for a levy on international currency transactions would once again arise. In the 1990s, two additional facts have sharpened interest in the Tobin tax proposal. First is the growing volume of foreign exchange trading. Second, interest is coming not only from policymakers and experts concerned with the smooth functioning of financial markets. It is shared by those concerned with public financing of development--the fiscal crisis of the state as well as the growing need for international cooperation on problems such as the environment, poverty, peace and security.

This work makes a systematic analysis of the proposal for a foreign exchange transactions levy. Its chapters examine the economic desirability of such a levy, its technical and political feasibility, its revenue potential, the possible uses of that revenue, and related administrative and institutional aspects. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Living & Working in the Netherlands
Good and helpful book with useful information and case studies. Could have used web address references and pictures, though.

Living & Working in the Netherlands
This book has a lot of useful information, and includes good case studies of different individuals' experiences of moving to the Netherlands. The only thing missing is the reference to web sites for accessing information online, such as apartment rentals. I also would have liked to see some photographs. ... Read more

Book Description

Exchange rates have been central to the course of economic development in Latin America from the heyday of import substitution to the rapid expansion of foreign debt in the 1970s, and from the debt crisis and its troubled aftermath to renewed growth and borrowing in the 1990s.

Why do governments choose the currency policies they do, and how do economic and political factors affect these policies? Although currency policy is made by governments operating in a political environment, there has been little study of the political economy of exchange rate policy.The Currency Game looks to fill this void by examining the range of potential determinants of currency choices by Latin American governments. While purely economic factors--especially economic structure, trade patterns, and exogenous economic conditions--are of course important to these choices, the book focuses on the political and political economy considerations that have typically been underrepresented in the literature. These include the effects of interest groups, electoral competition, and the timing of elections on exchange rate decisions.

Since exchange regimes are adopted for reasons as diverse as inflation control, reduced volatility and improved competitiveness, the book also features a cross-country analysis of national exchange rate policies, as well as case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru.

Book Description

Major investment, export-import and other strategic business opportunities and contacts, basic information for conducting business in the country ... Read more

Book Description

In 1989 the post-Communist countries of Eastern Europe opened their economies by establishing more open exchange rate policies and exchange controls and eliminating prohibitive tariffs and quotas. Now trying to join the integrated world economy, they are facing the challenge of finding strategic alliances and attracting foreign capital. This book analyzes economic policy in Eastern Europe with a focus on the financial arrangement of currency boards. It examines the main challenges facing East European countries, their economic policy strategies, the main challenges to the economies that adopted currency boards, and whether currency boards were a solution. ... Read more

Book Description

"HOW TO BE A SECTOR INVESTOR is an invaluable guide for anyone embarking on the sometimes perilous but potentially highly profitable journey of investing in sectors of the stock market. With an absence of jargon, an abundance of straight talk, and a refreshing focus on risk, the authors plot a sensible course for individuals with the courage to expand their investment horizons by venturing beyond broadly diversified portfolios." - Burton J. Greenwald, Nationally recognized consultant to the mutual fund industry. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Only touches on sector investing
There is nothing about timing or switching from one sector to another. Sector investing can be very volatile if you buy and hold. You need to know when to exit a sector and when to buy.

Excellent Guide for the Beginner and Intermediate Investor!
As the authors clearly indicate in the preface, this book is geared toward the beginning and intermediate investor. Written in a clear and concise manner that avoids excessive jargon, the information educates the reader about investing in sectors while providing valuable insights and practical advice.

Divided into 12 chapters, the book focuses on the sectors of primary interest to the "average individual investor." Specifically, the sectors covered include: Technology, Financial, Healthcare, Real Estate, Utilities, Energy and Natural Resources, and International. Although investing in international stocks is generally not considered a "sector," the inclusion of the international arena as a sector provides a useful perspective on this area.

In addition to the valuable content, the authors have an engaging writing style that does not hinder the information presented by them. The book is actually entertaining and inspiring.

Overall, "How to be a Sector Investor" is an excellent book on investing in sectors. Having researched a number of other books in this area, this one far surpasses other resources.

Not bad, not great.....
If you're new to Industry Sectors and want to learn alot about each one then this book is excellent for you to start. If you already watch sectors and their rotations then there really isn't much new in the book. It is definitely well written and very easy to understand. If anything, it re-inforced concepts and strategies I had forgotten. I wish it had incorporated some analyzing from a Technical charting viewpoint. There was none at all. All in all, it is a very positive book covering the different sectors of the market. I found it to actually be very motivating to follow the markets more closely. ... Read more

Book Description

The book deals with the econometric analysis of high frequency financial time series. It emphasizes a new nonparametric approach to volatility models and provides theoretical and empirical comparisons with conventional ARCH models, applied to foreign exchange rates. Nonparametric models are discussed that cope with asymmetry and long memory of volatility as well as heterogeneity of higher conditional moments. ... Read more

Book Description

With notes and coins now in use in all 12 countries that make up the Euro-zone, the euro is now a fully-fledged currency. One of the questions about running European Monetary Union (EMU) is whether different strands of macroeconomic policy should be coordinated. And if some form of coordination is desirable, should it be explicit and formal or merely tacit?

These questions will be central to the policy making process in the Euro-zone as EMU is consolidated. Although there are rules governing fiscal policy embodied in the Stability and Growth Pact, and the European Central Bank (ECB) has explained the rules it tried to follow in setting monetary policy, the policy mix that combines the two is much more vague. The essays in this work are written by policy-makers who have day-to-day responsibilities for key policy areas, practitioners and academics specializing in the analysis of EMU, including two of the leading architects of the current system. ... Read more

Book Description

Foreign exchange black markets in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica and Peru were studied during the period 1990-93. This group of case studies presents a broad view of the phenomenon in Latin American at the beginning of the 1990s. This is not a traditional economic analysis of foreign exchange markets, for many reasons. Most importantly, since black markets are illegal by definition, they are not recorded in offical statistics and the participants are not easily identified. Nevertheless, these markets are often widely used and well known to people living in the Latin American countries, so it is possible to paint a reasonably accurate picture of them. ... Read more

Book Description

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. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

This book shows its reader how to get the right currency--and not how to get the currency right, thus avoiding substantial currency risk in the first place. ... Read more