Reform of the International Monetary System: A Modest Proposal

Abstract

Reform of the international monetary system is back on the official agenda, for the first time since 1974, 37 years ago. France's president Nicolas Sarkozy called last year for a "new Bretton Woods conference", and has set reform high on the agenda of the G-20, of which he is chairman in 2011. A start was made at the Seoul summit in November 2010, when the G-20 leaders requested the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to identify "indicative guidelines" for large imbalances in payments. In accepted parlance the international monetary system is a narrower concept than the world economy or even the financial components of the world economy. Here's a proposal: let each country set a target level for its foreign exchange reserves five years hence. Then subject these proposed national targets to international discussion and review. Each country would be expected to defend its proposed target before peers, especially if it was unusually high or low.