UN in Focus Newsbrief N0. 1/2010 January 2010 Quick Links FES NY Events FES NY Publications More About Us Dear Friends, We send our first Newsbrief in 2010 with best wishes for a successful new year. In the run-up to the 48th Commission for Social Development at the UN in early February, the FES will co-host a Civil Society Forum on Social Integration in cooperation with the NGO Committee for Social Development and the UN Division for Social Policy and Development. I would also like to draw your attention on a briefing paper that examines flaws in the present international reserve system and presents alternatives toward a new world reserve system. I hope this Newsbrief makes for informative reading. I look forward to receiving your feedback. With all best wishes for 2010, Werner Puschra Director Friedrich Ebert Stiftung- New York Office Why Should the Global Reserve System Be Reformed? José Antonio Ocampo The UN Stiglitz Commission, appointed in late 2008 to study the global economic and financial crisis, had among its chief recommendations reforms to the global reserve system. This briefing paper by Commission member José Antonio Ocampo, former Under-Secretary­General for Economic and Social Affairs, argues that in the long run, a national currency cannot provide the basis for a stable, international monetary system. Mr. Ocampo's briefing outlines fundamental flaws in the current dollar reserve standard, flaws that place undue burdens upon developing countries-- as well as the US-- and create an unstable international reserve system. This paper explores the history, alternative forms and regional strategies toward a new world reserve system while showing policymakers the urgency of the issue: restructuring the international financial architecture will not be possible without taking into account the nature of the global reserve system on which it will depend. Briefing Paper#1, FES New York, January 2010 Link: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/global/06952.pdf