Money and the Nation State

Money and the Nation State examines the history of modern monetary and banking arrangements, their major problems and their possible correctives. Seventeen scholars, from a diversity of economic perspectives, examine the ways in which political interference in monetary institutions has undermined economic stability and prosperity (and has provoked international conflict).

They explain that monetary nationalism - the promotion of the monetary goals of the nation state - necessarily invites economic discoordination because it interferes with the free, equilibrating operation of market forces. Finally, the authors outline the reforms necessary to create monetary, financial and banking systems free of the episodic inflation, devaluation, debt crises, and exchange rate volatility that have plagued the twentieth century.