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Jack T. Boorman and Andre Icard, Reform of the International Monetary System: The Palais Royal Initiative. New Delhi: SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd, 2011, xxiii+358 pp., ` 1,350 [Hardback]. DOI: 10.1177/0972262912460196
The book under review is a collection of articles by experts in their respective domains all of whom agree that there is a need for reconstructing the existing International Monetary System (IMS) because the genesis of the global financial and economic crisis of 2008 lies in a weak and dysfunctional global monetary mechanism. As the name suggests, the focus of the book is to analyze the inherent weaknesses of the current IMS at the backdrop of the glo- bal financial crisis which affected the world at large and the developed nations in particular. The authors do not stop at pointing out the malaise of the IMS but also suggest vari- ous reform measures which are necessary to stabilize the system and reduce the failures which could affect the world in future. The authors to a large extent have been successful in doing that.
The book is essentially divided into four sections. The first section contains the introduction and the Palais Royal Initiative which primarily talks about the weak- nesses of the IMS and gives a series of measures which can rectify the imbalances within the system. Any discussion on the IMS cannot be done without bringing in the role of the financial sector in the context of the financially inte- grated world system. The second article of Section I gives an insight into the flaws of the IMS, namely ineffective global adjustment process, financial excesses and destabi- lizing capital flows, excessive expansion of international reserves and lack of effective global governance. One cru- cial aspect...