On Terms, Concepts, Theories And Strategies In The Discussion Of Greater Flexibility Of Exchange Rates [antikvár]

On Terms, Concepts, Theories and Strategies in the Discussion of Greater Flexibility of Exchange Rates I am known, or even perhaps notorious, for my fondness of semantic exercises. Some of my friends will probably wince at reading this lead sentence and will mutter under their breath, " There he goes again! " Fear not! I shall not unravel 57 varieties of meaning of flexibility, 15 of band, 14 of crawl, and 13 of peg. I shall try to do only the most necessary cleaning-up job preparatory for a discussion in which the participants will not want to waste time by misunderstanding one another as they use words in ambiguous ways. Not that I shall attempt to dictate to anyone in which of the possible meanings he should use an ambiguous term. There should be freedom of speech, even freedom of vague and ambiguous speech. Still, it may help if we know where some of the semantic traps are hidden; for we can then be on guard and, if we want to be understood, we can steer clear of the most likely confusions. Besides these objectives, my comments are intended to serve still other purposes. In some instances I shall propose distinctions that seem helpful in getting a sharper focus on the issues before us. Finally, I shall warn against exaggerated claims which partisans sometimes make for the faultless working of a recommended system, new or old. The question is not of perfection but only of comparative troublesomeness. Pegs and Parities Since a great deal is said in the current discussions about pegs and parities, we ought to decide whether we understand these words to mean the same thing or different things. Since John Williamson spoke about crawling pegs where James Meade spoke about sliding parities, one would be justified in regard-