Remarks delivered at the Institute of International Finance’s Spring Membership Meeting

• Vienna, Austria
• June 10, 2010

In the week following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008 – global financial markets actually broke down and by the end of the week they had to be put on artificial life support. The life support consisted of substituting sovereign credit for the credit of financial institutions which ceased to be acceptable to counter parties.

America Must Face Up to the Dangers of Derivatives

• Financial Times
• April 22, 2010

The US Security and Exchange Commission’s civil suit against Goldman Sachs will be vigorously contested by the defendant. It is interesting to speculate which side will win; but we will not know the result for months. Irrespective of the eventual outcome, however, the case has far-reaching implications for the financial reform legislation Congress is considering.

Remarks delivered at the INET Conference at King’s College

• Cambridge, United Kingdom
• April 9, 2010

Economic theory has modeled itself on theoretical physics. It has sought to establish timelessly valid laws that govern economic behavior and can be used reversibly both to explain and to predict events. But instead of finding laws capable of being falsified through testing, economics has increasingly turned itself into an axiomatic discipline consisting of assumptions and mathematical deductions – similar to Euclidean geometry.

Remarks delivered at the Second Roma Summit

• Córdoba, Spain
• April 8, 2010

I am pleased to be here for the Second Roma Summit. These meetings often begin with pious statements and end with lofty declarations.  I would like to see something different come out of today’s summit. We are all here because we know what a serious problem we face and recognize that we urgently need to find a solution.

Reforming a Broken Mortgage System

• politico.com
• March 25, 2010

Treasury Secretary Geithner testified Tuesday on a long-term plan to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) now in limbo.   But we don’t have to wait for years to reform the mortgage system — there’s a better approach that could be introduced right away.

The Euro Will Face Bigger Tests Than Greece

• Financial Times
• February 21, 2010

Otmar Issing, one of the fathers of the euro, correctly states the principle on which the single currency was founded. As he wrote in the FT last week, the euro was meant to be a monetary union but not a political one.

Europe Needs Educated Roma

• The Guardian
• January 13, 2010

Continued discrimination against Roma in Europe not only violates human dignity, but is a major social problem crippling the development of eastern European countries with large Roma populations. Spain, which has been more successful in dealing with its Roma problem than other countries, can take the lead this month as it assumes the European Union presidency.

Spanish Leadership for Europe’s Roma

• Project Syndicate
• December 31, 2009

Continued discrimination against Roma in Europe not only violates human dignity, but is a major social problem crippling the development of Eastern European countries with large Roma populations. Spain, which has been more successful in dealing with its Roma problem than other countries, can take the lead this month as it assumes the European Union presidency.

Financing the Fight against Climate Change

• Project Syndicate
• December 10, 2009

It is now generally agreed that the developed countries will have to make a substantial financial contribution to enable the developing world to deal with climate change. Funds are needed to invest in new low-carbon energy sources, reforestation and protection of rain forests, land-use changes, and adaptation and mitigation.

Our Double-Dip Future

• Project Syndicate
• December 9, 2009

We are at a moment when the range of uncertainties facing the global economy is unusually wide. We have just passed through the worst financial crisis since World War II. The only relevant comparisons are with the Japanese real-estate bubble, which burst in 1991 (and from which Japan has not recovered), and the Great Depression of the 1930’s – except that this crisis has been quantitatively much larger and qualitatively different.