This is a little stone ball, floating.

A polar bear swimming in the Arctic, by Paul Nicklen.

When Should China Float?

This time, Russia has maintained a floating exchange rate, conserving its reserves.

If the country has a floating exchange rate regime, the currency depreciates, too.

Would Argentina be better off had it floated the peso long before all this?

Of course, the Fed s policy reversal could hurt countries that maintain fixed or, like China, managed floating exchange rates.

The floating gate electrode has no connections to other parts of the integrated circuit and is completely insulated by the surrounding layers of oxide.

Yet China's rulers are right to postpone the decision to float.

Barring an unlikely international agreement, China, like Germany in 1973, will have to let its currency float.

The rest of the world, particularly Germany, had no choice but to let their currencies float.

Floating the exchange rate would expose the country to instabilities that would lead to a host of further problems, particularly the country's shaky banking system.

Not so long ago, we were comforted by theorizing that floating exchange rates would mediate international adjustments in a timely and orderly way.

It would be a mistake to float the renminbi under today's speculative and external political pressures.

Under heavy pressure from America, China's leaders have agreed in principle to float the renminbi, but refuse to say when. A floating currency is inevitable as China liberalizes its capital market and eliminates restrictions on international capital movements otherwise, China would have to surrender control over its money supply and interest rates to the US.

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) responded to collapsing oil prices by floating the ruble, which immediately lost half its value.

Under heavy pressure from America, China's leaders have agreed in principle to float the renminbi, but refuse to say when.

After the brief, unsuccessful attempt at exchange rate realignment known as the Smithsonian Agreement, the world's major currencies were floated in February 1973.

But, in the real world, many countries, particularly but not limited to small, open economies, simply find it impractical or undesirable to permit their currency to float.

On the other hand, it is clear that the roadmap to the eurozone might be completely different for the larger accession countries with floating exchange rates and inflation targeting monetary policy regimes.

The debate about the timing and technical form of euroization must address which monetary regime full fledged euroization or floating exchange rates is more effective in lowering risk premiums in the candidate countries. Smooth convergence of risk premiums for inflation, exchange rates, and, perhaps most importantly, debt default with those prevailing in the eurozone are crucial for alleviating possible shocks to the financial system.

Never mind that most of the crises could have been avoided, or late least substantially mitigated, if governments had let their currencies float against the dollar, rather than adopting rigid exchange rate pegs.

The debate about the timing and technical form of euroization must address which monetary regime full fledged euroization or floating exchange rates is more effective in lowering risk premiums in the candidate countries.

Floating the renmimbi can and should wait until China's bank balance sheet problems have been addressed and its monetary system and capital markets become more developed and ready to play a stable role in global finance.