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From Obscurity to Notoriety: A Biography of the Exchange Stabilization Fund

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  • Schwartz, Anna J

Abstract

The U.S. Treasury's $20 billion loan to Mexico in January 1995 from the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) brought to public notice the fund that had functioned in obscurity since its authorization by the Gold Reserve Act of January 31, 1934. The design of the ESF, as set forth in the statute, contributed to its obscurity. Its stated mission was to stabilize the exchange value of the dollar, but it has also assumed a role that had no mandate, that of lender to favored countries. ESF's intervention activities and the Federal Reserve's warehousing of ESF foreign currency assets are questionable. A statistical profile of the ESF accounts for the growth of its working balance from $200 million in 1934 to $42.6 billion in assets in 1995. Copyright 1997 by Ohio State University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Schwartz, Anna J, 1997. "From Obscurity to Notoriety: A Biography of the Exchange Stabilization Fund," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 29(2), pages 135-153, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:mcb:jmoncb:v:29:y:1997:i:2:p:135-53
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    Cited by:

    1. Kenneth D. Garbade, 2016. "The first debt ceiling crisis," Staff Reports 783, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    2. Michael D. Bordo & Owen F. Humpage & Anna J. Schwartz, 2010. "U.S. Foreign-Exchange-Market Intervention and the Early Dollar Float: 1973 - 1981," NBER Working Papers 16647, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. repec:osf:socarx:rveca_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Charles Calomiris & David Wheelock, 1998. "Was the Great Depression a Watershed for American Monetary Policy?," NBER Chapters, in: The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century, pages 23-65, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Murau, Steffen & Haas, Armin & Guter-Sandu, Andrei, 2022. "Monetary Architecture and the Green Transition," SocArXiv sw5tu, Center for Open Science.
    6. Mr. James M. Boughton, 2006. "American in the Shadows: Harry Dexter White and the Design of the International Monetary Fund," IMF Working Papers 2006/006, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Bordo, Michael D. & Schwartz, Anna J., 1999. "Under what circumstances, past and present, have international rescues of countries in financial distress been successful?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 683-708, August.
    8. Michael D. Bordo & Owen Humpage & Anna J. Schwartz, 2007. "The historical origins of US exchange market intervention policy," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(2), pages 109-132.
    9. Rik Hafer, 1999. "Against the tide: Malcolm Bryan and the introduction of monetary aggregate targets," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 84(Q1), pages 20-37.
    10. repec:ecr:col013:47856 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. J. Bradford DeLong & Barry Eichengreen, 2001. "Between Meltdown and Moral Hazard: The International Monetary and Financial Policies of the Clinton Administration," NBER Working Papers 8443, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Michael D. Bordo & Owen F. Humpage & Anna J. Schwartz, 2016. "On the Evolution of US Foreign-Exchange-Market Intervention: Thesis, Theory, and Institutions," NBER Chapters, in: Strained Relations: US Foreign-Exchange Operations and Monetary Policy in the Twentieth Century, pages 1-26, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Faudot, Adrien & Nenovsky, Nikolay, 2024. "Edgard Milhaud And The Case For Establishing An International Clearing Union In The 1930s: A Forgotten Forerunner Of Keynes?," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(3), pages 399-420, September.
    14. Robert L. Hetzel, 1997. "The case for a monetary rule in a constitutional democracy," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue Spr, pages 45-66.
    15. Jiemin SHENG, 2021. "The balance sheet of the exchange stabilization fund, 1934-2019," Journal of Economics Library, EconSciences Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 156-164, September.
    16. Steffen Murau & Armin Haas & Andrei Guter-Sandu, 2024. "Monetary architecture and the Green Transition," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(2), pages 382-401, March.
    17. Michael Bordo & Anna J. Schwartz, 2001. "From the Exchange Stabilization Fund to the International Monetary Fund," NBER Working Papers 8100, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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