Crisis Prevention and Prosperity Management for the World Economy: Pragmatic Choices for the International Financial Governance, Part 1

As the world's economic structure outgrows its political structure, international collective governance has emerged as a dominant issue. The need for enhanced cooperation among national governments is increasingly urgent. In the first of three companion essays supporting his pathbreaking book TURBULENT WATERS: CROSS-BORDER FINANCE AND INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE, Ralph C. Bryant focuses on supranational surveillance and lending intermediation as key elements of reform of the international financial system. At the heart of such efforts is the cooperative monitoring of national macroeconomic, exchange-rate, and balance of payments policies. Concurrently, Bryant argues, governments should streamline and strengthen intergovernmental lending intermediation for the liability financing of payments deficits through the International Monetary Fund. Delving deeper into the conclusions of his earlier volume, Bryant provides detailed analysis and technical discussion of the incremental policy measures needed to strengthen such collective efforts. More than anything else, he contends, reform of the international financial system should emphasize the prevention of crises. The primary preoccupation of governments and their citizens should be to encourage healthy growth and financial stability: prosperity management, rather than crisis management. Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 4 Contents......Page 6 Introduction......Page 8 Collective Surveillance: Rationale and Basic Questions......Page 10 Venues for Intergovernmental Cooperation: General Considerations......Page 14 Institutional Dimensions of Supranational Surveillance......Page 17 The IMF and Other International Organizations as Traffic Monitors and Adjustment Referees......Page 23 Soft or Hard Guidelines?......Page 33 Improving Analytical Foundations......Page 37 Dissemination of Information: Transparency versus Confidentiality......Page 41 The Individual Nation's Choice of Exchange Regime......Page 46 Guidelines for Cross-Border Financial Transactions......Page 56 Use of Financial Sector Assessments in Broader Surveillance of a Nation's Economic Policies......Page 65 Explicit Coordination of National Macroeconomic Policies?......Page 67 Evolution of Macro-Surveillance for the World Economy......Page 69 Lending Intermediation among National Governments: General Considerations......Page 74 Lending Intermediation and Surveillance by the IMF......Page 79 Should the IMF's Mandate Be Narrowed to Crisis Vulnerability?......Page 82 Should the IMF's Mandate Be Broadened?......Page 87 IMF Lending Facilities......Page 94 IMF Lending: An Overview......Page 111 The IMF: Whose Institution?......Page 114 IMF Governance: Distribution of Quotas, Voting Power, and Constituencies......Page 116 Aggregate Size of IMF Resources......Page 141 Concluding Perspective......Page 150 Appendix Table: Distribution by Nation of Key Economic Variables, Levels, and Percent of World Total......Page 155 References......Page 161 Index......Page 172

Turbulent Waters: Cross-Border Finance and International Governance advocates faster progress in reforming the international financial system. Its most important theme is the need for national governments and international organizations to upgrade their collective efforts at crisis prevention and prosperity management. The core of such efforts is the supranational surveillance of cross-border "traffic regulations" and the cooperative monitoring of nations' macroeconomic, exchange rate, and balance-of-payments policies. Concurrently, governments should streamline and strengthen the intermediation of intergovernmental lending for the liability financing of payments deficits through the International Monetary Fund. This essay gives detailed analysis supporting these conclusions and provides more technical discussion of the incremental policy measures needed to strengthen these collective efforts.

Constitutes a compagnion esssay to the author's "Turbulent waters: cross-border finance and international governance". Argues that governments should streamline and strengthen intergovernmental lending intermediation for the liability financing of payment deficits through the International Monetary Fund. Urges that governments and citizens should encourage healthy growth and financial stability, i.e. prosperity management rather than crisis management Bryant, a senior fellow in the economic studies program at the Brookings Institution, examines supranational surveillance and lending intermediation as key elements of the reform of the international financial system. He argues that national governments and international organizations need to upgrade their collective efforts at financial crisis pre My recent book, Turbulent Waters: Cross-Border Finance and International Governance, advocates faster progress in strengthening the international financial system (sometimes referred to as architectural reform).