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After reading Chapter 33, you should be able to:
Balance of Payments and International Monetary
Fund
- Know the difference between the balance of trade and the Balance of Payments. Define accounting identity and recognize surplus and deficit items.
- What kinds of transactions are contained in the Current and Capital accounts?
- What are Official Reserves? What impact will differing inflation rates have on trade? What is capital flight?
Determining Foreign Exchange Rates
- Know how a foreign exchange market functions and what is meant by the exchange rate, appreciation and depreciation.
- Be able to do exchange rate math, converting one currency into another or determining what the exchange rate is.
- What are the determinants of supply and demand and their slopes in foreign exchange markets? What causes the curves to shift?
- Put it all together and work with changes in equilibrium in the foreign exchange markets.
Gold Standard and the International Monetary Fund
- Be familiar with the two historical fixed exchange rate systems, the gold standard and the Bretton Woods Monetary System and IMF.
Fixed Versus Floating Exchange Rates
- Explain how a country can maintain a fixed exchange rate if that is its goal.
- Explain the pros and cons of a fixed exchange rate, and explain how a flexible exchange rate can work as a shock absorber.
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