Central Banking Crises and Global Economy or Ruling the Root

Central Banking, Crises, and Global Economy

Author: William J Johnson Frazer

Bridging a gap between economic theory and observed reality, this book examines the most visible central banks, the move to monetary union in Europe, the IMF's new role, the rise of managed market economies, and the elevated importance of central banks. In central banking, attention has often turned to the management of liquidity crises and the attainment of economic stability. In the global economy, the respective market economies are more interconnected, and information regarding crises in one part of the industrialized world is rapidly communicated to other nations, giving the crises themselves a more immediate impact. The information emanating from central banks at a policy level is crucial. This book aims to depict an ideal central bank for a globally connected country.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
Pt. I	An Analytical/Institutional Base
	Introduction	5
	Fractional Reserves and Selected Causal Linkages	17
	Liquidity and Nominal and Real Rates of Interest	39
Pt. II	Policy Experiments, Causal Linkages, and the Deutsche Bundesbank en Route to Monetary Union
	U.S. Policy Experiments and the Big U-Turn	63
	Open Market Operations, Friedman-System Linkages, and a Money-Policy Surrogate	85
	Bundesbank History, Linkages, and Inflation-Rate Targeting	109
Pt. III	International Dimensions and Crises with Global Impacts
	The Managed Financial System: The International Side	137
	The Asian Crises: Asia and Elsewhere	163
	Asia, Elsewhere, and the IMF	195
Pt. IV	The Golden Straightjacket
	The Exchange-Rate and Reserve- and Capital-Flows Mechanisms	235
	Growth and Inflation Rates Across Borders and Time	261
Pt. V	Central Banking, European, and Other Experiences
	The Big U-Turn and Monetary Union	269
	Some Money and Banking Lessons	287
Pt. VI	The Global Economy
	The Great Transformation, the Big U-Turn, and Russia	323
	Long-Term Capital Management and the Russian Crises	343
	The Global Economy and Development Economics	349
	Global Economy	365
	References	371
	Index	383

Book review: Mac OS X Leopard Pocket Guide or Unix

Ruling the Root: Internet Governance and the Taming of Cyberspace

Author: Milton L Mueller

In Ruling the Root, Milton Mueller uses the theoretical framework of institutional economics to analyze the global policy and governance problems created by the assignment of Internet domain names and addresses. "The root" is the top of the domain name hierarchy and the Internet address space. It is the only point of centralized control in what is otherwise a distributed and voluntaristic network of networks. Both domain names and IP numbers are valuable resources, and their assignment on a coordinated basis is essential to the technical operation of the Internet. Mueller explains how control of the root is being leveraged to control the Internet itself in such key areas as trademark and copyright protection, surveillance of users, content regulation, and regulation of the domain name supply industry.

Control of the root originally resided in an informally organized technical elite comprised mostly of American computer scientists. As the Internet became commercialized and domain name registration became a profitable business, a six-year struggle over property rights and the control of the root broke out among Internet technologists, business and intellectual property interests, international organizations, national governments, and advocates of individual rights. By the late 1990s, it was apparent that only a new international institution could resolve conflicts among the factions in the domain name wars. Mueller recounts the fascinating process that led to the formation of a new international regime around ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. In the process, he shows how the vaunted freedom and openness of the Internet is beingdiminished by the institutionalization of the root.