some point for the eu to look back. have the benefits of your currency union been all you imagined - - more, less, or different? have the costs been more, less, or different? what advice would you have for countries in south america, asia, or africa that might be considering currency unions? this was a huge undertaking and we ought to study it carefully while the lessons are still fresh. 2. the role of fiscal policy in a currency union. i read in the newspapers every day that your stability and growth pact is up for discussion, or at least that some people wish it were up for discussion. most of these people seem to be politicians who, euphemistically, may have goals in mind other than minimizing output fluctuations and maximizing output growth in the long run. but there is still a serious question about fiscal policy in a currency union. does the union want to force all countries to bring their deficits and / or debt ratios down? or, given that demand shocks will vary across the union, is there a role for decentralized fiscal policy? can the two objectives be combined, say by writing deficit limits in a certain way, having transition rules, or encouraging countries to run fiscal rainy day funds that would promote long - run fiscal responsibility and short term flexibility? there are many possibilities, and many nuances. 3. financial integration in a currency union. this is close to the topic of the next session, the one i will be chairing. we can say more about the issue at that time, but financial market integration is an inevitable feature of the modern open economy. it can take many forms, all of which have implications for exchange rate policy, for currency stabilization, for currency unions, and for policy coordination. these issues all lie on what might be considered a new frontier for monetary economists - - beyond the simple macroeconomics we learned in graduate school, and on to broader issues. i am glad to see that these broader issues are within the domain of the research conference. 4. policy coordination. this is another topic that has been the focus of research and debate since the end of world war ii. coordination clearly broke down in the inter - war period, and analysts continue to have ideas for improving it. at the same time, global institutions have changed dramatically since the end of world war ii, and there may be less need for coordination today. i would first reiterate president duisenberg's distinction between cooperation and coordination

edward m gramlich : one - country and multi - country monetary policy issues remarks by mr edward m gramlich, member of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, at the international research forum on monetary policy, european central bank, frankfurt, 5 july 2002. * * * introductory remarks i am pleased to follow president duisenberg in introducing the first conference organized by the international research forum on monetary policy, sponsored jointly by the european central bank ( ecb ), the federal reserve system ( fed ), the center for german and european studies at georgetown university, and the center for financial studies at the goethe university in frankfurt. for this first conference, the paper - givers are from the united states and seven european union ( eu ) countries, and attendees include members from all g - 7 and eu countries, most of the g - 20 countries, and a few others as well. this is a truly international undertaking and i congratulate all participants. i also join president duisenberg in specially congratulating the organizers - - ignazio angeloni, matt canzoneri, dale henderson and axel weber. both the forum and this conference will focus on research. we central bankers have plenty of opportunity to talk policy in our various groups. for research, there are lots of research conferences out there, but there are very few held between our staffs to discuss papers, talk about new policy research, and develop research strategies. there are also few opportunities to discuss the implications of research in a way that does not lead to the question, " oh, yes, but does that mean they will raise rates at the next meeting? " because of these conferences, policymakers will not raise or lower rates. but we will listen to your results and hope to learn from them. more significantly, we hope that you will learn from your own papers and those of others. there are areas of economics where there is alleged to be a wide gap between economic research and real world policy decisions. whatever the case elsewhere in economics, this is not true of monetary policy, monetary economics, or even macroeconomics. here there is a relatively short distance - - many of the questions that you will be dealing with in the next two days are those that my colleagues in the ecb, the banks of australia, canada, england, japan, and on down the list, and the fed deal with. policymakers probably do not deal with these questions in the same way as researchers - - i have