Mojmír Hampl, Vice-Governor, CNB
Opening remark, International conference of the University of Economics, Charles Univesrity and the Czech Technical University in Prague
The Conference Centre of the CNB
Prague, 20th November 2008
Ladies and Gentlemen, dear guests,
let me welcome you warmly in the Czech National Bank at this unique conference - really unique for us in the central bank, as never in our modern history we had so many historians here in this institution at the same time. And it is a great pleasure for us that we can host such an extraordinary event.
Despite that, I must say frankly that I do not feel perfectly comfortable now, standing here and opening the session. Not just because I’m not a professional historian, but rather because in my academic capacity as an economist I do from time to time attend conferences, workshops or seminars on various economic topics and I must say that very often the organizer’s or host’s opening remark or opening address is simply the worst speech of the day. Everything else is better than the opening remark.
And as I appreciate a lot that you have gathered here I do not want to leave this kind of a trace here.
So I will just very briefly say two comments:
a) First comment: the number eight at the end of the respective year is of special importance not only for you historians, but also for economists. As there is hardly a single political or social phenomenon, turbulence or event or simply big moment in history, that wouldn’t have either economic causes or direct economic consequences. Therefore, wise economists learn a lot from your work and I frankly wouldn’t find a single really inspiring economist that would ignore the science of history. And we will learn further from you. This is for sure.
b) And second: the number eight is significant also in two respects that probably won’t be discussed here today or tomorrow. It was in 1998 when the Czech National Bank switched to a monetary regime that is now considered as the state of the art in the monetary policy making – the regime of inflation targeting and a floating exchange rate, which means a truly autonomous monetary policy. So far the regime proved to be quite successful. And it was in 1998 when it had been introduced here. It was a revolution of its kind then, so even in monetary history there is probably a tendency for eights to become significant.
Moreover, now we have got the year 2008, the year when the global economy fell into a truly global financial crisis, which might or might not change the economic landscape for many years to come.
Of course, I do not want the year 2008 to become a new historic milestone after which for instance a new Great Depression began. I would rather wish that the year 2008 enters the history due to the fact, that this unique conference took place and was successful. This would be the right milestone.
Dear guests, I wish you fruitful and encouraging discussions, inspiring disputes and a lot of intellectual pleasure here and I hope that at least some of you also will also find some time to visit either the exhibition of the CNB showing the history of money, banking and currencies in the Czech lands or our relatively vast archive.
You are more than welcome here.
I wish you nice time spent here in the Czech National Bank.