The first authoritative history of hedge funds; from their rebel beginnings to their role in defining the future of finance.

China seems to want the yuan to dethrone the dollar as the global reserve currency. But don't expect China's currency to take over anytime soon.

Drawing on some 200 interviews, including twenty hours of discussions with World Bank President James Wolfensohn, Washington Post editorial columnist and Director of the Council's Center for Geoeconomic Studies Sebastian Mallaby takes readers inside the world's premier development institution.

Sebastian Mallaby argues that China’s ideas on international finance are mostly muddled.

Sebastian Mallaby warns that the international tensions of the 1930s were not just about trade; they were also about exchange rates. And while the world today has a rules-based trading system that staves off protectionism, there is no similar architecture governing exchange rates.

Sebastian Mallaby argues that forward-looking stress tests should be made permanent to prevent future financial blowups.

CFR's Sebastian Mallaby says the G-20 summit could mark the beginnings of a profound shift in global financial regulation. But he says challenges lurk in the way the IMF is funded and how it monitors economic governance.

CFR's Sebastian Mallaby says the deal agreed at the April 2 G-20 summit could mark a turning point for the future of financial regulation and the international monetary system. He adds, however, that many questions about how this shift might unfold remain unanswered.

Sebastian Mallaby argues that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's ideas on regulation and wind-downs are sensible, but they won't prevent the next crisis or save taxpayers from the cost, making it imperative that the financial industry take on less risk.

CFR economic expert Sebastian Mallaby credits President Obama with highlighting the long-term structural reforms needed to repair the U.S. economy and competitiveness, but says the scope of reforms may be too ambitious.

Sebastian Mallaby examines the dangers of transparency in the financial marketplace.

In this Washington Post op-ed, Sebastian Mallaby writes that China's currency manipulation is arguably the most important cause of the financial crisis. However, to get global growth going, it is more important to persuade China to extend its fiscal stimulus than to revalue its currency.

Sebastian Mallaby argues against responding to the Madoff scandal with more regulation of hedge funds.

Sebastian Mallaby writes that the end-of-capitalism talk is bunk. It distracts us from the debate we should be having on how to manage the necessary shift in the balance of our mixed economy.

Sebastian Mallaby says that desperate times demand creative remedies. Fortunately, Obama has chosen to surround himself with experienced technocrats-pragmatists who excel at imaginative improvisation.

The financial insurance scheme known as the IMF has not kept up with the volume of capital flooding through the world's system. Sebastian Mallaby argues that it is time to radically update this insurance scheme and that government commitments to the IMF should be tripled.

Sebastian Mallaby discusses how the financial crisis has shifted from scene to scene with terrifying speed. The crisis has now migrated into parts of the financial system which are hard to rescue-emerging markets and unregulated hedge funds.

In this Wall Street Journal op-ed, Sebastian Mallaby writes that persuading China to change its currency policy would be a worthy goal for a 21^st-Century Bretton Woods. It will be up to the two great powers -- the U.S. and China -- to fashion a deal that brings China into the heart of the multilateral system.

The Europeans have pressed successfully for a new Bretton Woods summit in response to the global financial crisis, but the Bretton Woods analogy is contrived. Sebastian Mallaby argues that while there is a role for global cooperation, it is worth remembering that after the last global crisis in 1997-98, the only important reforms were national ones.

Sebastian Mallaby says that federal policy needs to pay more attention to ordinary families now that Wall Street has gotten its bailout. The fastest and fairest way to help ordinary people is via a budget stimulus package.

In this Washington Post op-ed, Sebastian Mallaby argues that blaming deregulation for the financial mess is both misguided and dangerous. One of the big challenges for the next president will be to defend markets against the inevitable backlash that follows this crisis.

After the nationalization of Fannie, Freddie, and AIG, it is too late to worry about the government owning chunks of the financial system, says Sebastian Mallaby. Paulson must use the $700 billion fund to tackle the problem directly by recapitalizing the banking system.

Sebastian Mallaby says, the Treasury plan outlined Friday (9/26) involves vast risks, huge complexity and no guarantee of success. There are better ways forward, such as ordering banks to raise capital or buying equity stakes in them.