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The Present Monetary Crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Lydia N. Krassavina
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The growing contradictions inherent in capitalism are concentrated, as though at a focal point, in the monetary field—the most, vulnerable point in the whole capitalist economy. The extended period of the general crisis of capitalism is punctuated by periodic bursts of monetary crisis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 26 , Issue 101-102 , March 1978 , pp. 138 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © 1978 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 K. Marx, F. Engels, Works (Russian edition), vol. 20, p. 150.

2 V. I. Lenin, Complete works (Russian edition), vol. 27, p. 422-3.

3 Source: the Appendix to the journal World Economy and International Relations, No. 8, 1975; the figures for 1974 differ in being of more recent date.

4 Die Tat, March 29, 1974.

* The last five words constitute recent material inserted into the original text.

5 The world economic crisis was accompanied by a fall in the volume of international exchange of goods. The physical volume of exports fell by 5% between 1974 and 1975, and that of imports fell by 13%; the corresponding figures for the developed capitalist countries are 7.2% and 11.6% respec tively. (Source: the journal World Economy and International Relations, No. 4, 1976, p. 151 [in Russian].)

6 H. Bourguinat, Marché des changes et crises des monnaies, Paris 1972, pp. 76-77.

7 Le Nouvel Observateur, 1974, supplement.

8 F. Makhlup, Plans for Reform of the International Monetary System, Princeton University Press, 1964; A. G. Mileykovsky et al., "Bourgeois Economic Theories and the Economic Policies of Imperialist Countries," in Mysl' ("Thought"), Moscow, 1971; A. V. Anikin, "The Reform of the Capitalist Monetary System and the Present State of the Problem", in World Economy and International Relations, 1973, No. 5.

9 However, it was not until the meeting of the IMF Temporary Committee in Jamaica (7-8 January 1976) that a plan was approved for making the nec essary amendments to the IMF constitution; this will only become effective after ratification by the national parliaments of at least 80% of IMF member states.

10 The IMF meeting in Jamaica approved the system of "floating" exchange-rates and defined the IMF's tasks of overseeing the regulation of exchange rates.

11 Friedman holds that "if we continued to keep to the system of fixed parities, we should enter this year into a stage of severe currency crisis." He is echoed by another American economist, F. Machlup, who writes "There is no choice: we may like fixed parities, but they don't like us."

12 J. Rueff considers the system of freely floating exchange-rates "highly vulnerable and unstable; faced with a new crisis on the currency markets, it may collapse".

13 M. Friedmann, Dollars and Deficits. Inflation, Monetary Policy and the Balance of Payments, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1968.

14 Problèmes économiques, 1973, No. 7, p. 22.

15 The decisions of the IMF Temporary Committee in Jamaica make no mention, favorable or otherwise, of the role of gold as a reserve resource, although the IMF's preliminary plan envisaged increasing the authority of SDR by converting official gold reserves into these new reserve units. (Author's note).

16 G. G. Matyukhin, Hot Money, Moscow, 1974, p. 40.

17 However, the resolutions of the IMF Temporary Committee in January 1976 make no mention of the Committee of 20's proposal to link the allocation of SDR with the financing of development programs for the liberated countries.

18 As a result of the alteration in IMF quotas following the recommen dations of the IMF's Temporary Committee (January 1976), the developing countries' share (excluding that of oil-producing countries, which will increase from 5.19 to 10.09%), will barely change (it will be 22.19% as against 22.67%). Source: Survey of IMF, Jan. 19, 1976. The last two footnotes comprise ma terial of more recent date than the text.