The magnitude of the ongoing world financial meltdown and its real economic effects has lessened the focus on another set of major international financial issues that had been the center of significant attention in recent years: large global imbalances and their links to the global reserve system. Rising public sector debts and the massive monetary expansion in the United States, coupled with the highly uneven macroeconomic policy stimulus taking place throughout the world are two major reasons why renewed attention has to be paid to these issues.
This chapter analyzes the basic deficiencies that the global reserve system exhibits and its links with global imbalances. It is divided into four sections. The first examines the basic deficiencies of the system. The second and third look in greater detail at the instability and inequities of the system. The last section considers how the reserve system could be reformed.
