The establishment of the Commonwealth Study Group to examine the international financial and trading system is one more sign that the international monetary non-system that emerged from the negotiating failures of the 1970s is no longer viewed with the same complacent satisfaction as formerly. Global stagflation, repeated acute misalignments of exchange rates, breakdown of the recycling process and the threat of a financial collapse have combined to create widespread dissatisfaction with present arrangements. But that raises the question as to what arrangements might be preferable.