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Alexandre Lamfalussy – Selected Essays © 2017. Selection and editorial matter: Prof. Dr. Ivo Maes, National Bank of Belgium (NBB) and Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB); individual chapters: the copyright holders of the original texts. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the NBB and the MNB. Editor: Ivo Maes in cooperation with György Szapáry Cover photo: courtesy of the European Central Bank Published by the Magyar Nemzeti Bank Szabadság tér 9 Budapest H-1054 ISBN 978-615-5318-10-8 2017 Contents Foreword by Jan Smets, Governor of the National Bank of Belgium ...... 19 Foreword by György Matolcsy, Governor of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank ... 11 Introduction ................................................ 13 Part One The Young Lamfalussy (1929–1975)............................. 31 Chapter I The Steel Industry and the European Coal and Steel Community (1953) .. 33 Chapter II The Pattern of Growth in Belgian Manufacturing Industry, 1937-1956 (1958) ........................................... 56 Chapter III Europe’s Progress: Due to Common Market? (1961) ................. 94 Chapter IV Money Substitutes and Monetary Policy (1961) .................... 114 Chapter V The Euro-Bond Market: Problems and Prospects (1968) .............. 124 Chapter VI Towards a European Monetary Order? (1968)...................... 138 Chapter VII The Role of Monetary Gold over the Next Ten Years (1969) ........... 150 5 Alexandre Lamfalussy – Selected Essays Part Two At the Bank for International Settlements (1976–1993) ............ 157 Chapter VIII Will Improved Reporting Requirements Lead to a Safer Euromarket? (1976) .................................... 159 Chapter IX The Future of the Euro-Currency Market (1978) ................... 166 Chapter X Problems and Techniques of Monetary Management (1978) .......... 173 Chapter XI The Possible Consequences of the Establishment of the European Monetary System (EMS) for the Working of the International Monetary System (1979)...................................... 180 Chapter XII Introductory Remarks by the Chairman. Working Party on Domestic Monetary Policy (1980) ............................ 187 Chapter XIII Fighting Inflation Through Monetary Policy: Success or Failure? (1981) .. 192 Chapter XIV The Role of Banks in Balance-of-Payments Financing (1981) .......... 198 Chapter XV Concluding Session on Monetary Control Considerations (1983)....... 205 Chapter XVI The Changing Environment of Central Bank Policy (1985) ........... 211 Chapter XVII Structural Change in International Financial Markets (1986) .......... 219 Chapter XVIII Globalization of Financial Markets: International Supervisory and Regulatory Issues (1988) .................................. 236 6 Contents Chapter XIX The Danger: A Protectionist Backlash (1989) ...................... 245 Chapter XX Macro-Coordination of Fiscal Policies in an Economic and Monetary Union in Europe (1989)........................... 253 Chapter XXI Report of the Committee on Interbank Netting Schemes of the Central Banks of the Group of Ten Countries (1990) ........... 268 Chapter XXII Priorities for Eastern Europe (1991) ............................. 277 Chapter XXIII What Kind of Independence for Central Banks? (1993) .............. 283 Part Three Founding President of the European Monetary Institute (1994–1997) .............................................. 289 Chapter XXIV Central Banking in Transition (1994) ............................ 291 Chapter XXV Address on the Occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the Establishment of the New Hungarian Banking System (1997) ......... 304 Chapter XXVI The Changeover to the Euro (1997) ............................. 314 Chapter XXVII Securing the Benefits of EMU (1997) ............................ 320 Chapter XXVIII The European Central Bank: Independent and Accountable (1997) ..... 330 Chapter XXIX Farewell Address at the EMI (1997) ............................. 338 7 Alexandre Lamfalussy – Selected Essays Part Four Lamfalussy the Elder (1997–2015) ............................ 343 Chapter XXX Structural Changes in European Financial Markets (1999) ............ 345 Chapter XXXI Reflections on the Regulation of European Securities Markets (2001) .... 358 Chapter XXXII Central Banks and Financial Stability (2004) ...................... 380 Chapter XXXIII Dinner Address. Sixth ECB Central Banking Conference (2010) ....... 391 Chapter XXXIV Concluding Remarks. EMI 20th Anniversary Conference (2014)........ 399 Index .................................................... 405 8 Foreword Alexandre Lamfalussy was not only an eminent central banker and architect of the euro, but also a brilliant intellectual. This reprint of a careful selection of his essays is a fitting tribute to him as well as a way of preserving the intellectual heritage of this great European. It was a huge pleasure for the National Bank of Belgium to cooperate with the Magyar Nemzeti Bank on this project which brought together the central banks of the two countries which were close to Alexandre Lamfalussy’s heart. As Founding President of the European Monetary Institute, the precursor of the European Central Bank, Alexandre Lamfalussy will always be associated with European Economic and Monetary Union. Lamfalussy was a convinced European and he served Europe in many roles. From his earliest writings, he was an advocate of European monetary integration, but he was always careful to give the economic pillar its right place in Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union. Financial stability was a major concern for Lamfalussy and he was often a Cassandra warning of impending financial storms. At the Bank for International Settlements, he made a significant contribution to the creation of a “BIS approach”, namely that one should be attentive to imbalances, debt build-ups and bubbles, which may sow the seeds of financial crises. These topics are very much to the fore in the essays in this book. The book further highlights the young Lamfalussy’s trenchant analyses of the Belgian economy. While they caused a furore at the time, some of them still ring true today. Lamfalussy showed that Belgian exports suffered from high domestic labour costs and an outdated composition, focused on traditional products. He developed the concept of “defensive investment”, which mainly entails the reorganisation of existing factories, with short-term productivity increases, but much less potential for long-run economic growth. Alexandre Lamfalussy’s merits were widely recognised, in Belgium too. In 1993, King Baudouin conferred upon him the title of Baron for his efforts at the BIS to save emerging economies from bankruptcy. He was also awarded the honour 9 Alexandre Lamfalussy – Selected Essays of Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold in December 1997 for his work on European monetary integration at the European Monetary Institute. The National Bank of Belgium decided to institute a keynote lecture named in honour of Alexandre Lamfalussy at its biannual international conference. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone involved in the production of this volume. In the first instance, I would like to thank Governor György Matolcsy for the cooperation with the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, as well as György Szapáry, who coordinated the project on behalf of the MNB. A special word of thanks goes to Ivo Maes, who not only edited the volume, but who, through his initiative and hard work, has contributed greatly to preserving the intellectual heritage of Alexandre Lamfalussy. Jan Smets Governor of the National Bank of Belgium 10 Foreword This book is a tribute to the distinguished career of late Baron Alexandre Lamfalussy as an economist, academician, central banker and thinker, and to his outstanding contributions to the most important economic policy issues of his time: financial markets, exchange rates, debt crises, monetary policy and financial stability. Because of his dedicated work to promote European monetary integration and as Founding President of the European Monetary Institute, the predecessor of the European Central Bank, he is considered as the “father of the euro”. Baron Alexandre Lamfalussy was born as Lámfalussy Sándor in 1929 in Kapuvár, a town in North-Western Hungary. He attended primary school in Lenti, a town in South-Western Hungary, and Sopron, a city on the Austrian-Hungarian border, where he completed his secondary education. In 1947, he started studying economics at the József Nádor University of Technology and Economics in Budapest. As the communist regime consolidated its power, he emigrated to Belgium in 1949 and continued his studies at the Catholic University of Louvain. Belgium became his home, but he maintained a very special attachment to Hungary. This book is published in cooperation between the National Bank of Belgium and the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, the central bank of Hungary. Professor Ivo Maes from the National Bank Belgium, an eminent scholar of Lamfalussy and Editor of this book, sketches in his Introduction the extraordinary career and contributions to economic thinking of Alexandre Lamfalussy. Let me focus here on the close ties that Lamfalussy maintained to Hungary after the fall of communism. Soon after the democratic elections in April 1990, Prime Minister József Antall invited him for consultations. He had travelled willingly to Budapest ever since then as his advice