INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CRISES RUDI DORNBUSCH † STANLEY FISCHER CESIFO WORKING PAPER NO. 926 CATEGORY 6: MONETARY POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL FINANCE MARCH 2003 An electronic version of the paper may be downloaded • from the SSRN website: www.SSRN.com • from the CESifo website: www.CESifo.de CESifo Working Paper No. 926 INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CRISES Foreword Our friend and colleague Rüdiger Dornbusch passed away before he was able to complete his book based on the Munich Lectures in Economics that he gave in November 17, 1998, at the Center for Economic Studies of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. The lectures contain a fascinating overview of the mechanics and history of international financial crises showing the breadth and ingenuity of this eminent scholar. The lectures were lively and provocative, full of important insights and observations. Interestingly enough, Dornbusch expressed a substantial mistrust in the actions of political decision makers, supervisory agencies and central banks in the game that leads to the crisis and even collapse of financial systems, and he advocated supranational supervisory actions as a remedy. CES has decided to prepare a transcript of the lectures, which are also available in the Internet as full length-videos. I am grateful to Paul Kremmel for his assistance. Munich, March 2003 Hans-Werner Sinn Ifo Institute Poschingerstrasse 5 81679 Munich Germany
[email protected] JEL Classification: F3, E5, F2 2 These remarks were prepared to introduce Rudiger Dornbusch's Munich Lectures in Economics, at the Center for Economic Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, on November 17, 1998. LAUDATIO: RUDIGER DORNBUSCH Stanley Fischer It is an honor for me to introduce this year's Distinguished CES Fellow who is to deliver the Munich Lectures in Economics, Professor Rudiger Dornbusch; it is an enormous pleasure for me to introduce to you a superb economist, an outstanding speaker, a remarkable person, my co-author, and my friend for nearly thirty years, Rudi Dornbusch.