内容摘要 An international monetary system must also have means for adjusting imbal-ances in international payments. In national economies, payments imbalancesamong regions are adjusted more or less automatically through movement ofcapital and through fiscal and monetary policies. In international economic re-lations, disequilibria in payments can be settled by financing, by changing do-mestic economic policy to shift trade and investment patterns, by rationingthe supply of foreign exchange through exchange controls, or by allowing thecurrency exchange rate to change. Effective adjustment can be promoted byinternational cooperation, but successful cooperation depends primarily onimplementing domestic policies to achieve international solutions, a politicallydifficult task. In the Bretton Woods system, adjustment was based on a fixed exchangerate system supplemented by financing, exchange controls, exchange ratechanges, and adaptation of national policies. During the periods ofinterdepen-dence and globalization, a mix of adjustment mechanisms existed. Exchangerates among major members of the system floated; that is, they changed fre-quently in response to market conditions as well as to government interven-tion. Complementing these floating exchange rates were fixed rates amonggroups of countries, such as the EU, and fixed rates between two countries, aswas the case with countries who linked their currencies to the dollar or to othermajor currencies. Under floating rates, frequent exchange rate changes drivenby markets were supplemented by intervention by national authorities in cur-rency markets, financing, and changes in national economic policies. The tension between international adjustment needs and domestic politicalrequirements is a central dilemma of international monetary relations. For ex-ample, it is often necessary but politically difficult to implement policies thatreduce governmental budget deficits and inflation in order to stabilize a coun-trys exchange rate or to reduce the deficit in its balance of payments. Suchpolicies generally result in lower growth rates and higher levels of unemploy-ment in the short term but higher rates of growth and employment in the longterm. It is tempting for governments to put offthe domestic economic reformsnecessary to defend a declining currency or to delay adjustments that might re-duce the size of a balance-of-payments deficit because the necessary adjust-ments are likely to be politically unpopular. Finally, a stable international monetary system promotes international ex-change and economic prosperity, whereas instability disrupts internationaltransactions, threatens financial institutions, and damages domestic economies.A loss of confidence in the system can create economic and political disaster.During the Great Depression of the 1930s, for example, competitive ex-change rate devaluations, competing monetary blocs, and the absence of inter-national cooperation contributed greatly to economic breakdown, domesticpolitical instability, and war.
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