Bank of Israel Third Countries in a World of Two Major Currency Blocs
Proceedings of Bank of Israel Jubilee Conference, Jerusalem, November 2004 Bank of Israel Proceedings of the International Conference on Third Countries in a World of Two Major Currency Blocs Jerusalem International Conference Centre Monday, November 29, 2004 Moderator: Jacob Frenkel, Vice-Chairman, AIG, past Governor of the Bank of Israel Session I Leszek Balcerowicz, President, National Bank of Poland Guillermo Ortiz Martinez, Governor, Bank of Mexico Jean-Pierre Roth, Chairman, Swiss National Bank Allan Meltzer, Carnegie Mellon University Session II Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank Andrew Crockett, President, JP Morgan Chase International, past General Manager of BIS. Stanley Fischer, President, Citigroup International, past First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. November 9, 2005 Introductory Remarks by David Klein Governor, Bank of Israel January 2000–January 2005 By the time the International Conference, whose proceedings follow, was held in Jerusalem as part of the events marking the 50th anniversary of the Bank of Israel, the Bank was already practically independent. Twenty years earlier, in 1985, and since it was established in 1954, it was not much more than another government ministry with an additional special feature––the ability to print money to finance the state budget and extend credit to the private sector according to government directives. The result was hyperinflation and a growing crisis of confidence that threatened to bring the economy to a
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