After the collapse of the Bretton Woods exchange-rate regime in the early 1970’s, it was widely supposed that a flexible currency system would bring more stability. But, whereas we only recently learned that financial behemoths create financial instability, foreign-exchange markets for a long time were characterized by volatility and uncertainty.
自从 20 世纪 70 年代早期布雷顿森林汇率制度崩溃以来，人们普遍认为浮动汇率体系能带来更高的稳定性。尽管我们直到最近才明白，金融巨无霸也会导致金融动荡，但是长期以来，外汇市场的特点就是波动性与不确定性。这些市场需要大银行充当稳定器和交易对家。一旦大银行不再能够扮演这一角色，被迫收缩规模，市场波动的概率就会上升。