Regional President Speech

1961 Jayne Lecture Series of the American Philosophical Society, Tuesday evening, February 21, 1961, University Museum, Philadelphia, Pa. INTRODUCTION OF PER JACOBSSON OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND More than a year ago. Some people still talking of dollar shortage. Jayne Lecture Committee. Selected area to be covered in first series of Jayne Lecture. Of long-run basic importance — of current interest. Exact title left to speaker — THE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE WORLD OF TODAY In one way topic reminds me of — W. Bedell Smith* s comment on Russia; "There are no experts on Russia. There are only varying degrees of ignorance." Concerning economics, there seems to be a group of cynics who believe that — Nothing depends on anything — C.R.W. This view best illustrated: "Besides which," continued Mr. Gregsbury, "I should expect him now and then to go through a few figures in the printed tables, and to pick out a few results, so that I might come out pretty well on timber-duty questions, and finance questions, and so on: and I should like him to get up a few little arguments about the disastrous effects of a return to cash payments and a metallic currency, with a touch now and then about the exportation of bullion, and the Emperor of Russia and bank notes and all that kind of thing, which it's only necessary to talk fluently about, because nobody understands it. Do you take me?" "I think I understand," said Nicholas. (Charles Dickens, NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, Chap. XVI.) Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis -2- There are also those defeatists who say — "Since everything depends on everything else, anything can happen." As Dean Rusk has saidj "A respect for complexity is the beginning of wisdom." The Jayne Lecture Committee wanted someone — 1. Who had respect for the complexity of the topic. 2. Whose (a) Habits of thought and (b) Experiece Gave him judgments as to the functioning and relative order of importance of the many elements. 3. One who could describe the MARKET ECONOMY IN THE WORLD OF TODAY so that we could understand it. The man uniquely qualified to do this is PER JACOBSSON 1. Member of the American Philosophical Society. 2. For years Director of Research of Bank for International Settlements. Responsible for those brilliant Annual Reports. 3* In recent years — Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board of the INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND. DR. JACOBSSON is that rare combination — 1. Intimately involved in the market place. 2. At home in the ivory tower. A thoughtful man of action. Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Karl R. Bopp (1961, March 13). Regional President Speech. Speeches, Federal Reserve. https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/regional_speeche_19610314_karl_r_bopp

@misc{wtfs_regional_speeche_19610314_karl_r_bopp,
  author = {Karl R. Bopp},
  title = {Regional President Speech},
  year = {1961},
  month = {Mar},
  howpublished = {Speeches, Federal Reserve},
  url = {https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/regional_speeche_19610314_karl_r_bopp},
  note = {Retrieved via When the Fed Speaks corpus}
}