jwala rambarran : the road to independence – a manley perspective opening remarks by mr jwala rambarran, governor of the central bank of trinidad and tobago, at the twenty - seventh dr eric williams memorial lecture, port of spain, 28 september 2013. * * * on behalf of the board, management and staff, it is my pleasure to welcome you all to our twenty - seventh dr. eric williams memorial lecture, the first in my capacity as central bank governor. as you may be aware, this memorial lecture series was launched in 1983 by mr. victor bruce, our first local central bank governor, following dr. williams [UNK] passing in 1981. over the past twenty five years or so, the lecture series has emerged as a high level intellectual forum that critically examines issues relevant to dr. williams [UNK] legacy of caribbean nationhood and identity. tonight is no different. in fact, it may be even more poignant. i say this because tonight ’ s twenty - seventh lecture takes place against the brutal reality that caribbean nations must chart a new economic destiny in extremely uncertain and incredibly unforgiving circumstances. just as dr. williams [UNK] doctoral thesis “ economic aspects of emancipation and slavery in the british west indies ” challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that the causes of the abolition of slavery were not that the british had become morally offended at this sinful trade in human bodies, but was due to the fact that slavery was no longer profitable to british capitalism, so too must post - colonial caribbean nations challenge the prevailing defeatist attitude that they cannot escape the forces bedeviling their economies and societies and which threaten to permanently erase their uniquely crafted caribbean identity. i am certain that tonight ’ s lecture entitled “ the road to independence : a manley perspective ” will be one of those big conversations about the future of caribbean economies. our distinguished speaker, ms. rachel manley, aptly describes herself as of the transitional generation – the last to experience the remnants of unfettered colonialism and the first to experience the coming of age angst of a newly independent jamaica. as she might remind you all tonight, rachel manley was only 15 years old when she witnessed the union jack come down at midnight on august 2nd 1962 and the black, green and gold jamaican flag shimmy up the flagpole to unfurl the dreams of a new nation, jamaica. perhaps more importantly, rachel manley is the granddaughter and daughter of three of jamaica ’ s national leaders who forever changed jamaica ’ s intellectual, social and

lars e o svensson : monetary policy and employment – monetary policy is too tight speech by prof lars e o svensson, deputy governor of the sveriges riksbank, to the swedish trade union confederation, lo, stockholm, 16 january 2013. * * * i would like to thank karolina ekholm, gabriela guibourg, kerstin hallsten, per jansson, kerstin af jochnick, pernilla johansson, ulf soderstrom, staffan viotti and anders vredin for useful comments and discussions. anna lidberg and marianne sterner have contributed to this speech. the views expressed here are my own and are not necessarily shared by the other members of the executive board of the riksbank or by the riksbank ’ s staff. monetary policy is too tight in sweden although i am myself a member of the executive board of the riksbank, it is hardly a secret that i see major problems with swedish monetary policy. in a shorter - run perspective one can note that both cpi and cpif inflation are now significantly below the inflation target of 2 per cent, and that unemployment is way above a reasonable long - run sustainable rate. there is no doubt that monetary policy has contributed to this, in that it has been too tight since the riksbank began raising the policy rate in the summer of 2010. this may of course sound strange given that the policy rate is at a historically low level. but both short and long nominal and real interest rates have shown a negative trend since the mid - 1990s and have fallen in sweden and the rest of the world. this makes it misleading to now make direct historical comparisons of the level of the policy rate. the fact that monetary policy has been and still is too tight becomes clearer when one sees that the policy rate and the short real rates in sweden have been raised since 2010, and then have been kept high in comparison with policy rates and the short real rates in the euro area, the united kingdom and the united states. this is despite the fact that inflation in sweden is significantly lower than in these economies while unemployment is about as high as in the united kingdom and the united states ( figures 1 – 3 ). after having been close to the target in early 2010, cpif inflation in sweden has also since trended downwards to a rate of one per cent or below. 1 average inflation too low and average unemployment unnecessarily high since 1997 in a longer perspective, one