Bancor

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Bancor is the name of a global currency designed by the English economists John Maynard Keynes and Ernst Friedrich Schumacher , which was to emerge following the Second World War as part of a newly created International Clearing Union (ICU). The draft published in April 1943 envisaged the introduction of the bancor as an international unit of account to which the participating currencies were to be linked. The value of the bancor itself should be covered by gold .

The states participating in the system were to maintain Keynes' balances in Bancor with the ICU. The initial credit should be calculated on the basis of previous trading volumes and additional stocks can be purchased for gold. An exchange of the settlement currency in gold was not planned, so that Bancorreserven could not have left the system. The aim of this measure was to prevent a run on the bancor. By trade surpluses resulting balances the Bancorreserven should be credited and deficits as a burden this result. Possibilities for short-term overdrafts to the clearing house were also provided.

With the aim of a more stable world trade and currency system, there were sanctions for countries that show a permanent bancor deficit (e.g. in the form of currency devaluation, capital controls, seizure of gold reserves) as well as for those that achieve permanent surpluses (e.g. currency appreciation, coercion for international lending). The aim was to make the systematic beggar-thy-neighbor policy , which had led into a deflationary spiral in the 1930s and massively increased international tensions, impossible. Surplus candidates should be forced to initiate measures aimed at reducing the surplus and which at the same time would support deficit states. An expansion of the imports of a surplus country should ideally lead to increasing exports (and thus decreasing deficits) for the deficit candidates.

The British proposals under the leadership of Keynes (Keynes Plan) were not implemented. As part of the Bretton Woods conference , a compromise based on the American draft by Harry Dexter White with a key currency system based on a gold-backed US dollar was decided. In Europe, however, a clearing union was set up and tested with the European payments union between 1950 and 1958.

In the late 1950s, the Belgian-American economist Robert Triffin recognized the trade-off between short-term national and long-term international economic interests, known as the Triffin dilemma , that arises when a national currency functions as an international reserve currency. To this conflict confront, 1969 by were the International Monetary Fund called (IMF) special drawing rights ( Special Drawing Rights or short SDR) introduced. These special drawing rights are based on a basket of currencies consisting of US dollars, euros , pounds and yen and can be exchanged for other currencies if required. As a global currency reserve, SDR could not prevail, and their share in the total currency reserves is about 5%.

In the course of the financial crisis from 2007 onwards , the idea of ​​a central accounting unit that functions as a global reserve currency was taken up again. In March 2009, the President of the Chinese People's Bank, Zhou Xiaochuan , proposed expanding the role of the SDR and establishing it as the only global reserve currency. The proposal received support from the Russian side, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy also emphasized the advantages of a supranational currency system. In April 2010, the IMF discussed the problem in a publication and named as one possibility the development of SDR into an international currency that could be called “Bancor in honor of Keynes”.

literature

  • John Maynard Keynes: The Collected Writings, Volume XXV: Activities, 1940-44 - Shaping the Post-war World. The Clearing Union. Basingstoke 1980.
  • John Maynard Keynes: Proposals for an International Clearing Union / Union for international payments . In: Stefan Leber (ed.): Essence and function of money . Stuttgart 1989, p. 325 - 349 ( postwachstumsoekonomie.de [PDF; 100 kB ] English: Proposals for an International Clearing Union . Translated by Werner Liedke).
  • Armand van Dormael: Bretton Woods. Birth of a Monetary System . London 1978, ISBN 0-8419-0326-3 .
  • George Monbiot : The age of consent . 2004, ISBN 0-00-715043-1 .

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ EF Schumacher: Multilateral Clearing ( Memento of the original dated February 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 718 kB). In: Economica. New Series, Vol. 10, No. 38 (May, 1943), pp. 150-165  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cui-zy.cn
  2. ^ A b Johan Deprez & John T. Harvey : Foundations of International Economics: Post-Keynesian Perspectives. Routledge, 1999, ISBN 978-0-415-14651-7 , pp. 191 ff.
  3. ↑ Olivier Blanchard & Il Sakong: Reconstructing the World Economy: Papers Presented at a Joint Conference of the Korea Development Institute and the International Monetary Fund. The Stationary Office, 2010, ISBN 978-1-58906-977-0 , p. 140
  4. ^ A b Charles J. Whalen & Randy P. Albelda: Political Economy for the 21st Century: Contemporary Views on the Trend of Economics. ME Sharpe, 1996, ISBN 978-1-56324-648-7 , p. 143 ff.
  5. ^ A b Michael D. Bordo : The Bretton Woods International Monetary System: A Historical Overview. In: Michael D. Bordo & Barry J. Eichengreen : A Retrospective on the Bretton Woods System: Lessons for International Monetary Reform. University of Chicago Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0-226-06587-8 , p. 31 ff.
  6. ^ A b The Economist : The Global Monetary System: Beyond Bretton Woods November 2-4 , 2010
  7. ↑ Christian Geinitz, Benedikt Fehr & Claus Tigges: Before the world financial summit: China proposes a new key currency . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . March 25, 2009
  8. ↑ Tagesschau : Russia calls for a new world currency system ( Memento from April 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). March 31, 2009 ( Internet Archive )
  9. ^ IMF: Reserve Accumulation and International Monetary Stability . April 13, 2010 (PDF; 616 kB)