##munaute internationale. la contribution de la zone euro a la stabilite internationale peut etre appreciee a l ’ aune du developpement de relations economiques equilibrees au sein de la zone euro et avec les pays exterieurs a la zone euro, et a celle du renforcement de la stabilite monetaire et financiere internationale. a. l ’ etablissement de relations economiques equilibrees a ) les relations entre l ’ union monetaire et les autres etats europeens seront fondees sur la cooperation. la cooperation se traduira principalement par la coordination des politiques economiques des 15 etats de l ’ union europeenne. une telle coordination est requise par le traite et elle est necessaire pour que l ’ union europeenne fonctionne de maniere satisfaisante au niveau economique. il est important que le dialogue entre tous les etats europeens se poursuive, meme si le passage a l ’ euro modifiera l ’ environnement economique traditionnel de l ’ union europeenne ; c ’ est la raison pour laquelle le groupe de l ’ euro 11, compose des ministres des finances de la zone euro, a ete constitue et s ’ est deja reuni plusieurs fois. le dialogue entre toutes les parties concernees doit prendre en compte l ’ independance totale de la bce et l ’ objectif de la stabilite des prix qui, en vertu du traite, doit guider la politique monetaire de la zone euro. en particulier, la coordination entre les 15 pays permettra a ceux qui n ’ ont pas encore rejoint l ’ union monetaire de converger vers la zone euro. le nouveau mecanisme de change qui va lier a l ’ euro certaines des monnaies concernees ( c ’ est le cas de la drachme grecque et de la couronne danoise er depuis le 1 janvier 1999 ) apportera sa contribution a ce processus. en favorisant la stab

as a result, investors have faced asset price fluctuations that might be more synchronised than before. lastly, the connections between credit, asset price and business cycles have tended to amplify cyclical swings. credit, in particular, is playing an important role in asset price fluctuations. observed in particular during the “ speculative bubbles ” of the 1980s and early 1990s, this trend has persisted. another example is provided by boom - bust cycles in asset prices which have often been associated with sharp economic contractions. several factors are in play when financial asset prices experience amplified moves i shall give a few examples. some market participants have become more inclined to engage in " short - termism ", that is, they might be too preoccupied with their short - term results. this trend might result, in particular, from growing pressure to yield immediate financial results that are not necessarily sustainable. marking - to - market all assets and liabilities has also contributed to this widespread focus on immediate financial performances. this focus on short - term performance can translate into additional volatility in the price discovery process : the shorter the investment horizon of market participants, the bigger the impact of any new information on prices. mimetic behaviour is by no means a new phenomenon on financial markets. however, technological developments on markets may have gradually reinforced this type of behaviour. the spread of benchmarking, which allows fund managers and clients to measure performance against that of other funds, together with the growing competition within the sector, appears to have increased such mimetic behaviour. some operators have come to the conclusion that it is better to be wrong along with everybody else, rather than take the risk of being right, or wrong, alone. a striking example of rational mimetic behaviour is the influence that hedge funds enjoyed, a few years ago, as " opinion leaders " and trend makers. by its nature, trend following amplifies the imbalance that may at some point affect a market, potentially leading to vicious circles of price adjustments and liquidation of positions. the spread of certain fund management techniques, in particular index management, which has proven very popular on equity markets, may have contributed to amplifying movements in financial asset prices. this technique endeavours to match as accurately as possible developments in stock market benchmark indices. it therefore mechanistically leads managers to accentuate current price trends by buying stocks that are on the rise and selling those that are falling. it can be argued that index funds distort the price