john murray : with a little help from your friends – the virtues of global economic coordination remarks by mr john murray, deputy governor of the bank of canada, at the state university of new york at plattsburgh, plattsburgh, new york, 29 november 2011. * * * “ uneven growth and widening imbalances are fuelling the temptation to diverge from global solutions into uncoordinated actions. however, uncoordinated policy actions will only lead to worse outcomes for all. ” g - 20 leaders declaration, seoul summit 11 – 12 november 2010 “ we, the finance ministers and central bank governors of the g - 20, affirm our commitment to take all necessary initiatives in a coordinated way to support financial stability and to foster stronger economic growth in the spirit of cooperation and confidence. ” statement of g - 20 finance ministers and central bank governors 8 august 2011 introduction thank you very much for the invitation to deliver the distinguished canadian address on a contemporary public policy issue. i am honoured to be here and grateful for the opportunity to speak to you about one of the most important public policy issues that we are confronting in these extraordinarily difficult times. policy - makers around the world are facing two critical challenges of a truly systemic nature : restoring stability in europe and rebuilding strong, sustainable and balanced growth in the global economy. the two quotes above are testament to the firm and shared belief of today ’ s policy - makers that these challenges can be met only through timely and comprehensive policy coordination across countries. yet a generation ago, both academics and policymakers shared the equally firm belief that the prospective gains from global coordination were minimal, if not negative. they advocated a more independent approach to policy formulation and implementation, and advised authorities to simply “ keep their own houses in order ” and leave the rest to the insulating properties of flexible exchange rates. this quote from stanley fischer is representative of the consensus view that prevailed in the late 1980s : “ [ m ] ore consistent ongoing policy coordination in which countries, including the united states, significantly modify national policies “ in recognition of international policy interdependence ” is not on the near horizon. fortunately, the evidence suggests that the potential gains from coordination are in any event small : the best that each country can do for other countries is to keep its own economy in shape. ” 1 my remarks today are divided into three parts. first, i will outline the assumptions and research that supported the earlier, independent view of policy making. second, i

date, our hosts here this evening have decided that the bank of canada's web site is the best among the two dozen central bank sites that they short - listed for this award. so the question you may be asking is, " how exactly did you do it? and what sets the bank of canada's web site apart from those of other banks? " first, we did it ourselves. we didn't throw a lot of money at outside consultants. from the earliest days, we have been fortunate enough to have a small group of key people - editors, writers, programmers - who were excited by this new technology, and who were willing to dedicate their time to building and improving the site. i'd like to take a moment to mention a couple of those key people by name - although, as always, there are many others whose efforts have contributed importantly to the success of the site. some of you may already know our senior web consultant, brent eades, through his web - related articles in central banking publications, and his presentations at various central bank web conferences. since 1998, brent has had the principal responsibility for developing and expanding our site, and we are obviously very pleased that his efforts are receiving such a strong endorsement here tonight. i would also like to note the considerable contribution of ken kingsbury, a senior programmer on our staff, who has been responsible for perfecting many of the sophisticated data search tools on the site. second, from the beginning, our attitude has been one of encouragement, rather than direction. we have been content to trust the planning and management of the site to staff who have the expertise to do the job right. indeed, i think the fact that we have trusted the specialists in our various departments to decide how best to present their particular information has a lot to do with the success of our web site. as we look to the future of our site, our plan is to continue to trust those with the necessary talent. staff are already planning a variety of improvements to the site over the next year - a graphic redesign is in the works, as well as the simulation game i mentioned a moment ago. we also plan to fine - tune and reorganize the site's content to make it even more accessible than it is now. so this is a heads - up to our fellow central bankers that we don't intend to relinquish this award readily! * * * * * * * * * * * * * *