Hong Kong's Link to the US Dollar
Hong Kong’s Link to the US Dollar covers the origins of the city’s currency crisis in 1983, the initial resolution of the crisis by the creation of a traditional currency board, the subsequent problems leading to the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98, and the later reforms. Each chapter is preceded by an introductory narrative that puts the analysis in its historical context and places the economic argument in perspective. Ultimately, this book will enable readers to obtain a comprehensive picture of why the linked rate system was put in place, how it works, and why it has been strengthened over the years.
Praise for Hong Kong's Link to the US Dollar
“A magisterial treatment of how Hong Kong lost and re-established stable money by the principal intellectual architect of its currency board regime. Greenwood, a monetary master craftsman, has produced what is destined to become both the standard reference work on Hong Kong’s modern monetary system and essential reading for students of monetary economics and economic development.”
— Steve H. Hanke, Professor of Applied Economics, The Johns Hopkins University
“A great book describing how Hong Kong surmounted the great currency crisis of 1982–83, and then rationalizes why and how the Hong Kong Monetary Authority subsequently evolved from a pure currency board to a near central bank. The definitive historical record by the most consummately influential outsider.”
— Ronald I. McKinnon, William D. Eberle Professor of International Economics, Stanford University
“John Greenwood has written the definitive account of Hong Kong’s currency system, from the early colonial currency board system, to the floating exchange rate system from 1974 onwards, to its breakdown in the wake of Hong Kong’s currency crisis of 1983, to the adoption and operation of the new exchange rate mechanism in October 1983, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the operation of currency boards and, in particular, with an interest in Hong Kong.”
— Alvin Rabushka, David and Joan Traitel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University