OeNB-Freitagsseminar: Robert Triffin: A Life
With Ivo Maes, University of Louvain and ICHEC Brussels Management School, and Ilaria Pasotti, Consultant, Intesa Sanpaolo Historical ArchiveOeNB-Freitagsseminar
Robert Triffin: A Life
With Ivo Maes (University of Louvain and ICHEC Brussels Management School)
and Ilaria Pasotti (Consultant, Intesa Sanpaolo Historical Archive)
With World War II still raging, nations came together to create a new international monetary order, the Bretton Woods system. One man saw the political, economic, and moral tensions inherent in keeping the dollar, a national currency, as a global reserve currency. When the monetary arrangement collapsed in 1973, economist Robert Triffin had already predicted its downfall two decades previously. Triffin played further a key role in Europe’s EMU process, becoming one of the intellectual fathers of Europe's single currency, the euro. This intellectual biography evaluates what made Triffin a crucial figure in modern economic history. With an emphasis on the ideas that shaped the postwar international system, Robert Triffin: A Life explores both the man and the mission. In addition to analyzing his work in economics and policymaking, Ivo Maes and Ilaria Pasotti trace Triffin's story from a very modest background, as the son of a butcher, who grew up through the interwar period, to a singularly influential economist in the late twentieth century. The first biography of one of the intellectual giants of the postwar era, Robert Triffin critically examines the accomplishments and the legacy of a scholar who believed that innovations in economic policy could lead to a better and more peaceful world.
Date
Friday, 23 September 2022 | Start: 11:00 AM | End: 12:30 PM
Venue
The event is planned both, online via Webex and onsite with limited attendance by invitation only at the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Otto-Wagner-Platz 3, 1090 Vienna