FORMER TREASURY OFFICIAL URGES CURRENCY REFORMS
Former Treasury official C. Fred
Bergsten said a new exchange rate system is needed to replace
the fixed and flexible exchange rate systems which he said had
not worked.
    "I prefer a move to 'target zones' in which the major
countries would determine ranges of 15-20 pct within which they
would pledge to hold their exchange rates by direct
intervention and, as necessary, by changes in monetary and
other policies," Bergsten, now the director of the Institute
for International Economics, said in a statement to a House
Banking subcommittee.
    "The substantial correction of the exchange rate that has
occurred since early 1985 is enormously welcome, and should
produce a sizeable reduction in the U.S. trade deficit this
year and next, but the imbalance will not fall much below 100
billion dlrs on present policies, so much more is needed," he
said.
 Reuter
