Meanwhile, capital flows were increasing in volume as international financial markets expanded, and market participants found ways around pre-existing capital controls. The result was that private markets had growing means (and incentives) to challenge officially-maintained exchange rate pegs. Central bank reserves were increasingly inadequate to resist such pressures, despite the introduction in 1970 of a Special Drawing Rights (SDR facility) at the IMF.
On the contrary, I am convinced that active and confident monetary cooperation with the United States is important for the stability and prosperity of the world today. I strongly disagree with those who say that the euro has been created to compete with the US dollar. Let’s be clear: the ECB is not campaigning for the international use of the euro.