Stanley Fischer

Globalization and Its Challenges

Rudi was born and grew up in Krefeld, Germany. He was an undergraduate at the University of Geneva, and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1971, which is where we met. He was a student of Robert Mundell, and both the subject matter – the development of the Mundell-Fleming model – and the elegance and insights of his early work reflected Mundell’s influence. He taught at the University of Rochester and at the University of Chicago before accepting an offer from MIT in 1975.

On the need for an international lender of last resort

Is there a useful function for an international lender of last resort (ILLR)--defined as crisis lender and crisis manager? Yes for international capital flows are excessively volatile and contagious, and because an ILLR can help mitigate the effects of this instability. I examine the Bagehot rules, and their applicability in an international context, focusing on the problem of moral hazard. I argue that a critical condition for the successful operation of an ILLR, a role that is to an important extent played by the IMF, is to ensure private sector involvement in the resolution of emerging market financial crises.