Consensus against IMF Regime

Consensus against IMF Regime Jagdish N Bhagwati THE recent crisis in the international monetary system has led to much speculation among academic economists here [United States] as to the future course of action. The number of economists in this country who have explicitly discussed the advisability of shifting eventually to a system of flexible exchange rates is considerable. Indeed, the only prominent international economist who continues supporting the regime of fixed rates is Charles Kindleberger. Even Paul Samuelson, who clearly cannot be described as a market-dominated economist, was on television on the night before de Gaulle turned around and refused to devalue the franc, and talked rather explicitly about the recent crisis providing the vantage point for the new US administration to begin thinking seriously about moving away from the IMF regime. The crisis has thus seemed to bring economists of totally different political and economic persuasion to converge steadily onto the view that the Bretton Woods system has outlived any utility it might have had in the post- War period.