This volume makes a unique contribution to the finance and investment literature by bringing together in one place insightful analyses of three major issues affecting world financial markets. Written by a distinguished group of academics, policymakers, and financial executives, the chapters collected here cover international imbalances and international policy coordination, the international debt crisis, and global financial markets. Although the contributors express a variety of approaches and viewpoints, they are united in emphasizing the growing importance of financial markets in the international economy.

In Part I, the contributors deal with the long-standing question of how to deal with international trade imbalances. Their works take dramatically different positions regarding the causes and cures of the U.S trade deficit and the associated fiscal deficit but highlight the increasingly recognized role of financial flows. Among the other issues discussed are exchange rate variations, future challenges to the international monetary system, the foreign exchange market, and central banking. The second section includes six essays which examine aspects of the international debt crisis. The contributors show that the debt crisis is complicated by the greater role of private international financial flows to developing countries than was the case twenty years ago. Separate chapters present an overview of the international debt crisis, look at the debtor position, review the history of the LDC debt crisis, and explore current developments. Part III examines developments in the structure and functioning of global financial markets and contains separate discussions of futures and options markets, Japanese financial markets, international equity market links, implications for investors, and more. Must reading for policymakers and students of international finance, this book is also an ideal set of readings for courses in international economics.