Other Periodicals
2011
October 14, 2011
Per Jacobsson Lecture: What Financial System for the Twenty-First Century?
Description: This paper describes a financial system that should be adopted for the 21st century. The paper highlights that the financial crisis of 2008 has raised fundamental questions about how the financial industry is structured, managed, and regulated. The paper discusses that a well-functioning financial system plays an essential role in generating high levels of saving, promoting the efficient allocation of investment, and smoothing economic fluctuations stemming from nonfinancial causes. By facilitating informed risk taking, it is a key element in achieving optimal levels of productivity growth and rising living standards.
2010
December 15, 2010
Navigating the New Normal in Industrial Countries
Description: This paper discusses about the fact that longer the recognition problems persist, the greater the risk of continued “active inertia” and disappointing outcomes. The possibility of policy mistakes and business accidents will increase further, it will become harder for industrial country governments to convince their citizenry (as well as decision makers in emerging economies) to participate fully in the formulation and implementation of the required solutions, and multilateral institutions will not be able to fill the growing void at the core of the international system. The innovative financial instruments were potent in lowering barriers to entry to many markets, including important segments of the US housing market. As a result, too many households purchased homes that they could not afford, using exotic mortgages they did not fully understand, and too many small companies took on debt they could not sustain. Prior to the crisis, key industrial countries had embarked upon a multiyear, serial contamination of balance sheets.
February 12, 2010
Growth After the Storm? A Longer-Run Perspective
Description: The October 2009 Per Jacobsson Lecture, delivered in Istanbul in conjunction with the 2009 Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank, examined the issue of longer-run growth prospects for the global economy following the recent global economic crisis. Will the world be able, in the five to ten years after the crisis abates, to return to the very rapid kind of economic growth sustained in the five years leading up to it? Noting that recent debate on the topic has focused on demand-side factors, neglecting the key area of supply-side sources of growth, Kemal Dervis, the 2009 Per Jacobsson lecturer, argues that contrary to the majority view that limited, below-trend growth is likely to prevail for some time, there is probably potential for very rapid growth in the world economy over the coming decade, thanks to strong supply-side factors. Whether such growth can be realized depends, however, on demand-side management both at the national level and through improved global macroeconomic policy coordination.
2006
November 14, 2006
Asian Monetary Integration: Will It Ever Happen?
Description: This paper examines the possibility of Asian monetary integration. The paper highlights that the objectives and motivations behind the continuing debate for Asian monetary integration have now evolved. The objectives are no longer defensive, no longer preoccupied with crisis prevention or resolution. They are now more forward looking; they are about growth, about greater trade integration, about spurring greater cross-border flows of investment within Asia, and about promoting the integration and deepening of financial markets.
2005
November 4, 2005
International Financial Institutions: Dealing with New Global Challenges
Description: This paper discusses how international financial institutions (IFIs) can deal with new global challenges. The paper highlights that surveillance is the primary responsibility of the IMF. To make it more effective, more attention should be paid to long-term, structural developments that, if left unaddressed, can over time create intractable rigidities and obstacles to growth. These include labor market rigidities, the consequences of demographic trends such as aging, and even the accumulation of international reserves. The interrelations between countries and the systemic impact of policies should also be a key focus of surveillance.
August 8, 2005
Per Jacobsson Lecture #1
Description: This paper reports about the Per Jacobsson Foundation and various lectures in detail. Mr. Camdessus was educated at the University of Paris and earned postgraduate degrees in economics at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration Publique. He is a member of the Commission for Africa, which is chaired by the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Following his appointment as Administrateur Civil in the French Civil Service, Mr. Camdessus joined the Treasury in the Ministry of Finance in I960. After serving as Financial Attache to the French delegation at the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1966 to 1968, he returned to the Treasury and went on to become Assistant Director in 1971, Deputy Director in 1974, and Director in February 1982. Mr. Camdessus was appointed as Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board of the IMF on January 16, 1987. On May 22, 1996, the Executive Board of the IMF unanimously selected him to serve a third five-year term as Managing Director, beginning January 16, 1997.
2004
December 21, 2004
The U.S. Current Account Deficit and the Global Economy
Description: This paper presents the views of Lawrence H. Summers on the U.S. current account deficit and the global economy. Summers highlights that the U.S. current account deficit is currently running well in excess of US$600 billion at an annual rate, in the range of 5.5 percent of GDP. It represents more than 1 percent of global GDP and absorbs close to two-thirds of the cumulative current account surpluses of all the world’s surplus countries. Summers thinks that such a unique imbalance deserves careful scrutiny.
June 21, 2004
The Per Jacobsson Foundation at 40: Commemorating a Statesman in International Monetary Affairs
Description: This paper discusses the appointment of Andrew Crockett as the Chairman of the Per Jacobsson Foundation. At its meeting on October 3, 2004, the Board of Directors of the Per Jacobsson Foundation unanimously selected Mr. Andrew Crockett as its new Chairman with effect from November 1. Mr. Crockett, a Director of the Foundation since October 1993, succeeds Mr. Jacques de Larosiere, Chairman since November 1999. Mr. de Larosiere announced his retirement from the Chairmanship and the Board of Directors in recognition of the age limit for directors of the Foundation agreed by the Board.