Book Reviews

Abstract

Jeffry Frieden of Harvard University reviews “Strained Relations: US Foreign-Exchange Operations and Monetary Policy in the Twentieth Century”, by Michael D. Bordo, Owen F. Humpage, and Anna J. Schwartz. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Explores the evolution of US policy regarding currency market intervention and the interaction of currency market policy with monetary policy, and explores this evolution by drawing on foreign exchange transactions conducted through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York between 1962 and 1995. Considers how changing economic and institutional circumstances and political and bureaucratic factors affected foreign exchange policy. Discusses the evolution of US foreign exchange market intervention—thesis, theory, and institutions; exchange market policy in the United States—precedents and antecedents; introducing the Exchange Stabilization Fund, 1934-61; US intervention during the Bretton Woods era, 1962-73; US intervention and the early dollar float, 1973-81; US foreign exchange market intervention during the Volcker-Greenspan era, 1981-97; lessons from the evolution of US monetary and intervention policies; and foreign exchange market operations in the twenty-first century.” Bordo is a Board of Governors Professor of Economics at Rutgers University. Humpage is a senior economic advisor in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The late Schwartz was a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.