Michael J. Oliver

Sterling in crisis: 1964-1967

We provide the first econometric study of foreign exchange market intervention for the UK during the sterling crises from 1964 from 1967. We use daily data on spot and forward dollar/sterling exchange rates and reserve movements which allows a more precise description of the loss of credibility during four currency crises. Reserve losses are consistent with exchange rate crises. External assistance given to sterling throughout this period shored up the reserves and allowed the sterling peg to be maintained.

The two sterling crises of 1964: a comment on Newton

In a recent article in this journal, Newton claimed that there were two sterling crises in the autumn of 1964 and that the government response to the second crisis followed a ‘textbook reaction’. This comment challenges both suggestions and argues that there was one sterling crisis and that the government did not deal with the crisis adequately.

Monetary targets: an unfinished experiment?

The memoirs of Chancellors of the Exchequer and the retirement speeches of officials indicate that monetary targets were adopted in the second half of the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s primarily in an attempt to manage expectations in financial markets, to stop them from behaving in an undesirable way, and not as an intermediate target to control nominal GDP, as monetarists advocated. Gordon Pepper is Honorary Visiting Professor, City University Business School, and Michael J. Oliver is Senior Lecturer in Economics and Economic History, Sunderland Business School.