Monetary Rules and Monetary Reform

Abstract

For much of the fifteen years, the central concern in international finance has been monetary reform. Numerous proposals were advanced for the production of new international reserve assets and for changes in exchange market arrangements, especially in the mid-1960s. The modifications to the Bretton Woods system were extensive, beginning with The General Arrangements To Borrow and continuing with Special Drawing Rights, central bank swaps, the widening of support limits around parities, and the demonetisation of gold. Yet the Bretton Woods system was not saved; the pegged exchange rates re-established in the Smithsonian Agreement lasted for little more than a year. The negotiations for a new monetary arrangement of the Committee of Twenty (C-20) proved unsuccessful.