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The article discusses fixed-value monetary systems and its transitioning standards of value. Topics include the Soft Money approach who's goal is to price stability and full employment, the fixed-value system rule applied to the hard money approach, market based fixed-value systems and the transition between gold-based Currencies and floating fiat currencies.

Political economists have raised concerns that EMU's asymmetric institutional design leaves the project's legitimacy vulnerable to fluctuations in the perceived advantages and disadvantages of the euro. The evidence presented in this paper suggests that overall support for EMU within the euro area remained high over the period 1999-2005, thus allaying concerns over the project's legitimacy. At the same time, public attitudes towards EMU did vary from one euro-area member to another with perceived rather than actual economic performance appearing to be an important factor behind this cross-country variation. In policy terms, these findings underline the need for a system of euro-area economic governance that promotes a high degree of support for the single currency over the long-term. This will necessitate a more effective approach to output legitimation as well as policies that seek legitimacy for EMU by emphasising process, values and inputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why has Britain declined to adopt the single currency? The conventional view holds that there are multiple political and economic barriers to British entry into monetary union-large fractions of public opinion, business leaders, and the Conservative party oppose entry; Britain's economic cycle is not synchronized with that of the euro-zone; adoption of the single currency would harm foreign trade and investment; British political institutions make it difficult to muster support for such a move, and so on. I argue that policy failure is a more important influence on British economic policy. Major changes occur when extant policy fails and there exists an alternative policy idea that both explains this failure persuasively and prescribes a new and more effective way forward. A British government might advocate euro membership if the current framework for policy in Britain - central bank independence with a floating exchange rate - fails, and policies pursued by the European Central Bank address the source of this failure. This combination would also lead many politicians, business leaders, and voters to see the advantages of euro membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of the European Monetary Union (EMU) is very important for both the European Union and the world economy. To abolish the differences in exchange rates, to promote the development of economic relations, to boost development and employment, and to reach economic stability in member countries are the main causes of establishing the EMU. Together with the formation of the EMU, the EU completed its economic and monetary union and hopes to make transition to the next level (political union stage) emerged. Therefore, the EMU is very important for the EU for both economic and political reasons and its sound operation is vital to the EU. The sound operation of economic and monetary union is positively correlated with the Euro area being the optimum currency area. To determine whether the Euro area is an optimum currency zone and to identify measures that can be taken on the issue have important implications for the future of the Union and its effects on other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a reassessment and a restatement of the important properties of gold standards and stresses the role of the Real Bills Doctrine in Federal Reserve policy as the main cause of the Great Contraction of 1929-1933 in the U.S. The author has taken issue with articles and books that have assigned major fault to gold standard for the decline of employment, prices, production, income, and welfare. He also tries to rectify the omissions overlooked in the studies analyzing the Great Contraction. It also demonstrates that the Real Bills Doctrine, not “the” gold standard, was the intellectual and operational basis for the disastrous Fed policy of 1929-1933.

This article explores the ways in which the classical gold standard established the foundations for a modern international monetary system with its distinctive forms of crisis and regulatory frameworks. The specific nature of this transformation is often overlooked because of a tendency in the literature to compare the gold standard in relation to subsequent monetary systems, such as Bretton Woods. To remedy this historical bias, the classical gold standard is compared with previous monetary systems and it is concluded that it contributed to expand the array of monetary instruments for conducting monetary policy. By progressively subjecting the management of fiduciary money to state control the institutions of the gold standard created a new monetary framework that opened the way for central banking. However, the commitments taken to this effect, such as provisions on the convertibility of banknotes, created new opportunities for speculation. I argue that this new weakness would become the main preoccupation of monetary policy in the 20th century and lay down the foundations for international cooperation and its novel emphasis on monetary stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]