Floating Exchange Rates after Ten Years

Jeffrey R. Shafer and

JRS

Jeffrey R. Shafer

Bonnie E. Loopesko

BEL

Bonnie E. Loopesko Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Discussants: Ralph C. Bryant and

Ralph C. Bryant Senior Fellow Emeritus - Economic Studies, Global Economy and Development

Rudiger Dornbusch

RD

Rudiger Dornbusch

TEN YEARS AGO, in March 1973, the United States and other nations abandoned efforts to maintain the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates among the major currencies. The period of largely marketdetermined (floating) exchange rates between the dollar and other major currencies began. This fundamental change in the international monetary system was ratified by the Rambouillet Summit in 1975 and the Second Amendment of the International Monetary Fund’s Articles of Agreement in 1978.