person to whom this lecture series is dedicated and who has kindly agreed to be with us today, michel camdessus. [applause] his legacy is well known to us all. michel, you presided over the fund for 13 years. you were its longest-serving anaging director, and your stewardship was transformational for this institution. soon after you took the helm in 1987, the world as you knew it, as we all knew it suddenly went into shambles, and it was undone radically and unexpectedly. you managed the fund through the fall of the berlin wall, the unraveling of the soviet union, the mexican crisis, the asian crisis, and the russian crisis. yet when you announced your intention to retire and some frivolous reporter asked you, what should your successor have as a main attribute, you said immediately without thinking about it, a solid sense of humor. [laughter] throughout these difficult and dynamic times, you steered the fund with a remarkable vision, vigor, and tenacity, but also humanity. your interactions with country authorities were characterized by a unique skill in galvanizing different forces towards fa

dedicated and who has kindly agreed to be with us today and has traveled from paris yesterday, michel camdessus. [ applause ] his legacy is well known to us all. michel, you presided over the fund for 13 years. you were its longest serving manager director and your stewardship was transformational for this institution. soon after you took the helm, in 1987, the world as you knew it, as we all knew it, suddenly went into shamble. and it was undone radically and unexpectedly. you managed the fund through the fall of the berlin wall, the unraveling of the soviet union, the mexican crisis, the asian crisis, and the russian crisis. yet, when you announced your intention to retire and some frivolous porter asked you what's your successor should have as a main attribute, you said immediately without even thinking about it, solid sense of humor. [ laughter ] now, throughout these difficult and dynamic times, you steered the fund with remarkable vision, with vigor, and with tenacity and also with humanity. your interactions with country authorities were characterizes by a unique skill in galvanizing fav

it is the seven pledges of michel camdessus. to ourto pay tribute guest in the back who was kind enough to let me have his card of the seven pledges. the seven pledges on sustainable development that became part of the 15 principles of the u.n. millennium development goals. still are awere and staunch supporter of multilateralism and cooperation, of openness and friendship between nations, and under your leadership, a decisive effort was made to curtail exchange restrictions. mid-1990's, by the making a public commitment to openness was no longer controversial in many countries. with openness came the need to better integrate. you witnessed the globalization of financial markets, and as a central banker yourself, you had the foresight to recognize that there was needed better integration of monetary exchange rate policies. it is those products on which we cooperate very well. thanks to your efforts, the imf fromble to transform fiscal two also monetary and financial. thank you, michel. finally, you and your wife always harbored

it is an honor to deliver the inaugural michel camdessus central banking lecture. michel camdessus served with distinction as governor of the banque de france and was one of the longest-serving managing directors of the international monetary fund. in these roles, he was well aware of the challenges central banks face in their pursuit of price stability and full employment, and of the interconnections between macroeconomic stability and financial stability. those interconnections were apparent in the latin american debt crisis, the mexican peso crisis, and the east asian financial crisis, to which the imf responded under camdessus's leadership. these episodes took place in emerging market economies, but since then, the global financial crisis and, more recently, the euro crisis have reminded us that no economy is immune from financial instability and the adverse effects on employment, economic activity, and price stability that financial crises cause. the recent crises have appropriately increased the focus on financial stability at central banks around the world.