scholarly journals The Elephant Hiding in the Room: Currency Intervention and Trade Imbalances

Author(s):  
Joseph E. Gagnon
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-66
Author(s):  
Marco Meyer

Politicians around the globe wrangle about how to deal with trade imbalances. In the Eurozone, members running a trade deficit accuse members running a surplus of forcing them into deficit. Yet political philosophers have largely overlooked issues of justice related to trade imbalances. I address three such issues. First, what, if anything, is wrong with trade imbalances? I argue that in monetary unions, trade imbalances can lead to domination between member states. Second, who should bear the burden of rebalancing trade? I argue that surplus and deficit countries should share that burden. The current situation placing the burden squarely on deficit countries is unjust. Third, which institutional arrangements should monetary unions adopt to regulate trade balances? Monetary unions can either reduce trade imbalances within the monetary union, neutralise the impact of trade imbalances on the economic sovereignty of member states, or delegate economic policy affecting trade balances to a legitimate supranational institution. The Eurozone must adopt one of these options to prevent member states from domination. Which option protects members best against domination depends on what makes interference between members arbitrary, an unresolved question in republican theories of justice.


Author(s):  
Jelena Trivić

The scope of this paper is to define thenotion of global imbalances as well as to present theamounts of trade imbalances of the world's largest tradersin the period before and in the aftermath of the globaleconomic crisis. Although the global economic crisis hassomewhat corrected high deficits, or surpluses of the world'slargest traders, data show that after the recovery of worldtrade after the global economic crisis, there is a resumptionof trade imbalances in these countries. The global tradeimbalances of the world's largest traders are shown inabsolute terms as the difference between the import andexport of goods, but also in relative terms expressed as ashare of the surplus or deficit in the gross domestic productof each country. It is important to point out that thirteencountries whose trade imbalances are represented in thispaper, either individually or as aggregated within a group ofcountries, make up over half of the world's total trade ingoods.


2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helge Berger ◽  
Volker Nitsch
Keyword(s):  

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 258-278
Author(s):  
Satya Prasad Padhi

The present article develops an argument in which depreciating Indian rupee is basically due to underdeveloped status of domestic production base that is reflected in continuing trade deficits. It argues that price theoretic policies not only manage trade imbalances but also completely neglect the revival of domestic production base that can induce a tendency towards exports-led correction of the trade imbalances, that is, it neglects the importance of exports to make a transition towards strong production base, manageable trade balances and strong foreign exchange status; if so, the continuing Indian deprecation negates international financial stability status. The present article provides an alternative policy focus that is on finance-led initiations of broader Youngian–Kaldorian division of labour that favourably shapes demand-based market mechanism (and growth of aggregate demand) and results in sophistication in industrial differentiation, that is, increased specialisations in intermediate goods production. It is argued that such transition confers a developed status with respect to the (BBoP basic Balance of Payments i.e., trade and foreign direct investment [FDI] inflow prospects), which in turn is crucial to achieve financial balance of payments (BoP) stability. All in all, the price theory is inapplicable when trade is based on absolute cost disadvantages and Keynesian policies provide the solutions.


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