of instability, and what reforms, if any, should be considered? as i pointed out earlier, one recurring theme in the debate has been the question of reserve assets. our second panel, chaired by george soros, will examine ways to improve the supply of reserve assets. is a diversification of reserve assets desirable, and if so, should it be actively promoted? is there a greater role for sdrs in the international monetary system, and if so, what reforms would be required to give sdrs a greater role? over the past decades, private capital flows have greatly increased. although capital account liberalization is clearly beneficial in the long run, it entails significant short - run vulnerabilities. the third panel, chaired by duvvuri subbarao, will take up the question of how to deal with these vulnerabilities. what are the appropriate policy responses, and what is the role for regulation and capital controls? one policy response has been the accumulation of reserves, which can provide a temporary shock absorber. however, reserve accumulation entails costs for the countries accumulating reserves as well as for the world economy as a whole. our last panel, chaired by masaaki shirakawa, will discuss alternatives to self - insurance. an obvious question here is the role of imf lending facilities. as already mentioned, the questions we address today are difficult and complex. someone who played an important role in trying to address them over several decades was jacques polak. sadly, he passed away earlier this year. reflecting on the efforts to reform the international monetary system since the bretton woods conference, jacques polak once suggested that “ those of us who toil at the international monetary system would do well to adopt sisyphus as our patron saint ”. in honor of jacques polak, let us then push the stone back up the mountain once more and start with our first panel. thank you for your kind attention.

speech embargo 21 september 2017, 5. 30 pm second karl brunner distinguished lecture introduction of john b. taylor thomas j. jordan chairman of the governing board swiss national bank zurich, 21 september 2017 © swiss national bank page 1 / 4 ladies and gentlemen i am very pleased to welcome you to the 2017 karl brunner distinguished lecture. the swiss national bank established the karl brunner distinguished lecture series to pay tribute to academics whose research is of particular relevance for central banking. with this annual lecture, we want to reach a wide audience, including, in particular, students. for this reason today ’ s event is taking place at the eth zurich, which is internationally one of the most renowned academic institutions. i would like to thank the president of the eth zurich, professor lino guzzella, for making these fantastic premises available to us. this year, we are paying tribute to john b. taylor. he is one of the world ’ s foremost economists. john ’ s work is characterised by a keen interest in highly relevant questions, from both an academic and an applied point of view. he has made major contributions to economic theory. in addition, by bridging the divide between theory and practice, he is one of few economists to have had a profound impact on economic policy and thus on macroeconomic stability. john is also a very effective teacher. just let me give you one example. did you know that tiger woods, the famous golf professional, was his student in the introductory class at stanford? john taught tiger about opportunity costs. immediately afterwards, tiger left college and joined the pro tour. clearly, a decision that paid off. but back to john taylor again. today, he will talk about ‘ ideas and institutions in monetary policy making ’. before giving him the floor, i will briefly introduce him. born in yonkers, new york, john taylor earned his a. b. from princeton university and his ph. d. from stanford. he taught at columbia university from 1973 – 1980 and at princeton university from 1980 – 1984. and since 1984, he has been teaching and researching at stanford. john is the perfect economist. he is outstanding as a researcher, policy advisor and teacher. in acknowledgment of his exceptional services, he has received a number of prestigious awards for excellence in all these three fields. let me say a few words about each of these areas, beginning with john taylor the researcher. his research topics range from work