Leading Essay: Lessons from Adjustment of the Current Account

Abstract

The research for this volume originated during discussions in Washington, DC, in which I asked the authors to analyze competing proposals to adjust the current account deficit of the United States. This was part of a major project I led at the CSIS, involving Senator Chuck Hagel, Professor Raghuram G. Rajan, who is the Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund, and others. Adjusting external imbalances is the current most important and potentially dangerous issue in world finance. We had the opportunity to discuss these issues during the project, research and writing of this volume.