Jeffrey Frankel writes: Macroeconomic policy seems to be back on policymakers\u2019 agendas. The reason is understandable: growth remains anemic in most countries, and many fear the US Federal Reserve\u2019s impending interest-rate hike. Unfortunately, the reasons why coordination fell into abeyance are still with us.<\/p>\n
The heyday of international policy coordination, from 1978 to 1987, began with a G-7 summit in Bonn in 1978 and included the 1985 Plaza Accord. But doubts about the benefits of such cooperation persisted. The Germans, for example, regretted having agreed to joint fiscal expansion at the Bonn summit, because reflation turned out to be the wrong objective in the inflation-plagued late 1970s. Similarly, the Japanese came to regret the appreciated yen after the Plaza Accord succeeded in bringing down an overvalued dollar.<\/p>\n
Moreover, emerging-market countries\u2019 representation in global governance did not keep pace with the increasingly significant role of their economies and currencies. These countries\u2019 very success thus became an obstacle to policy coordination.\u00a0Macroeconomic Policy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jeffrey Frankel writes: Macroeconomic policy seems to be back on policymakers\u2019 agendas. The reason is understandable: growth remains anemic in most countries, and many fear the US Federal Reserve\u2019s impending interest-rate hike. Unfortunately, the reasons why coordination fell into abeyance … Continue reading