International Monetary Fund essays

International Monetary Fund essays The International Monetary Fund is an important function that makes world trade less strenuous. The International Monetary Fund, or IMF as it is called, provides support and supervision to nations in all stages of economic progress. International trade is a key element to enable nations, large and small, to strengthen their economic positions. Larger nations need the international market to export their goods and services, and smaller nations also need this world scale market to import products so they are able to produce more efficiently. In order to achieve these goals, one major component must be in place. The ability to value other nation's currency. Throughout the years, many different ways have been used to do this, mostly ending in failure. There is no perfect way to accurately measure the true value of another country's currency. The International Monetary Fund is an effort to see each country's economic position, offer suggestions, and provide the fundamental economic securi ty that is essential to a thriving world economy. Many of the domestic economic goals are reiterated by the INF on an international level. To understand the current INF we will investigate the events leading up to its existence. Between 1879 and 1934 major nations used a method of international exchange known as the Gold Standard. The Gold Standard was simply a fixed-rate system. The rate was fixed to gold. In order for this system to function properly three things had to happen. First, each nation had to define its currency to gold (this definition then could not change). Second, each nation must than maintain a fixed relationship to its supply of money and its amount of actual gold. Third, the on-hand gold must be allowed to be exchanged freely between any nations throughout the world. With all of those policies successfully in place, the exchange rates of the participating countries would then be fixed to gold, therefore to each other. To successfully ma...