The Unstable EMS

Barry Eichengreen and

Barry Eichengreen Professor - University of California, Berkeley

Charles Wyplosz

CW

Charles Wyplosz

Discussants: Rudiger Dornbusch and

RD

Rudiger Dornbusch

William H. Branson

WHB

William H. Branson

FROM THE STANDPOINT OF EUROPEAN MONETARY AFFAIRS, 1992
opened with a bang and closed with a whimper. In January, the European
monetary system (EMS) celebrated five years of exchange rate stability:
sixty full months without a realignment. The month before, the
representatives of European Community (EC) member-states initialed
the Treaty on Economic and Monetary Union concluded at Maastricht
in the Netherlands. The transition to European monetary union (EMU)
appeared to be fully underway.