Lessons from the SUCRE and TARGET2 systems for a sound international monetary system in a financialized economy

Abstract

More than 70 years after the Keynes Plan was originally created, it is still considered an alternative to the current International Monetary System (IMS) and many believe it contains potential benefits for issues such as global stability, employment and fair relations among countries. In fact, it has served as an inspiration for real cases of regional payment systems. In this article, the Keynes Plan is considered the main guideline for a specific reform proposal of the IMS in the twenty-first century. Therefore, our first intention will be to explain the main political and technical advantages of the Keynes Plan, which will serve as a prerequisite to subsequently identify the conditions for its optimal performance in the financialized economy of the twenty-first century. For that purpose, we draw lessons from the dynamics observed in two different regional payment-systems: the SUCRE in Latin America and the TARGET2 in the Eurozone.

Keywords:

• Financialization
• International Monetary System
• Keynes Plan
• SUCRE
• TARGET2

JEL CODE:

• E42
• F33
• F41

Notes

1 For a detailed explanation of the Triffin Dilemma, possible reinterpretations and criticisms see Mundell 1998; Dooley, Folkerts-Landau, and Garber 2003; Barredo-Zuriarrain 2016; Bordo and McCauley 2017.

2 International Money Clearing Union.

3 Beyond the central institution and the principle of symmetrical adjustment, there were substantial differences between the proposals.

4 By “productive international operations” we refer to all nonspeculative ones, that is, operations related to consumption, trade and long-term investment in the real economy.

5 For a more detailed explanation of the intra-Euro payments, see Febrero, Uxó, and Dejuán (2015) and Lavoie (2015).