BOOK REVIEWS 1317

the various developments and circumstances that have led to calls for controls
over the expansion of the Eurocurrency market. He then raises the question as to
what type of model is appropriate as a description of the expansion of Eurodollar
deposits. He criticizes various versions of the multiplier approach mainly because
of the difficulty of finding an adequate definition of the base upon which the
expansionary process is built. Stem concludes that the nonbank financial inter-
mediary credit expansion model is appropriate for analysis of the Eurocurrency
system.
Among the possible ways to control the expansion of the Eurodollar market
Stem analyzes and rejects both a system of reserve requirements imposed on
Eurobanks and open market operations with the U.S. Federal Reserve acting as
the world central bank. He instead argues convincingly that deregulation of U.S.
banks is likely to be the most effective in limiting the growth of the Eurocurrency
market. This conclusion is based on an analysis of the effect on the competitiveness
of U.S. banks of current regulations limiting the payment of interest on certain
kinds of deposits. Stem concludes his interesting paper with a section on the
question of a lender of last resort for Eurobanks and an analysis of the impact of
petrodollars on the Eurocurrency system.
As should be clear from the above, the book under review does not, except for
Stem's paper, deal to any great extent with the Eurocurrency market. Instead its
main emphasis is on aspects of capital mobility and fixed versus flexible exchange
rates. Within these topics its strength is not in providing new results and con-
clusions but rather in surveying a large number of issues. As such it tends to be
lengthy at times although occasionally an interesting hypothesis and suggestion
for further research is provided. If the editors had attempted to reduce the length
of the book fairly substantially, they would not have risked a reader skimming
over these bright spots.
The book does not contain an index but has a very useful 37-page bibliography
of which 51 entries are annotated.
HANS GENBERG
GraduateInstitute of International Studies, Geneva

Reference
Genberg, Hans. "The Concept and Measurement of the World Price Level and
Rate of Inflation." J. MonetaryEcon. 3, no. 2 (1977): 231-52.

David Ricardo:A Biography.By DAVID WEATHERALL.

The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976. Pp. xi+ 201. F1 35.

This volume has little about the economics of David Ricardo but is an informative
account of his life and personality. The author well summarizes the approach of
the book in the preface: "Though much necessarily is said about the economist
in the book, I must make plain that it is not primarily a study of his work.... In
the arrangement of the book I have departed occasionally from a strictly chrono-
logical narrative. Instead I have attempted to present the life of David Ricardo in
a number of facets, as if it were a diamond."
As the author acknowledges in the preface, he has drawn heavily upon the
material in Sraffa's The Worksand Correspondence of David Ricardo.He has also used

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 13i8 JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

some other sources, in particular those relating to the family background of the
Ricardos, going back to Spain; the family's residence in the seventeenth century
in Livorno, where they were in the coral trade; the history of the Jewish com-
munity in Amsterdam; Ricardo's religion and his association with Unitarianism;
and the housekeeping details of his various homes in England.
The book reinforces the picture of Ricardo that is familiar to those who have
read the correspondence and biographical material in the Ricardo Works: his
reasonableness, his high sense of integrity, his concern for those less financially
fortunate than himself-both in his own family and outside-and his efforts in
behalf of religious toleration and of political reform. For the noneconomist who
has read too deeply in Carlyle and Ruskin about the heartlessness of classical
economists, the book should do much to correct an all too common stereotype.
Within the limits that he has set for himself, Weatherall has written an inter-
esting account that the noneconomist as well as the economist will find good
reading.
FRANK WHITSON FETTER
Hanover,New Hampshire

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