Reflections on change and continuity at the IMF

Abstract

Let me begin by saying how honoured I am to receive the John Kenneth Galbraith Prize in Economics, and to follow in the footsteps of Mel Watkins and Kari Levitt, whose work I have long admired and whose friendship I value very highly. More than that, their academic interests and mine coincide in some important ways and they have for many years been very influential in shaping my ideas. This seems like an opportune time to reflect, as both Mel and Kari did, on the influences in my life, on the circumstances and people that have shaped my intellectual work and my social activism. I have been fortunate to have had supportive colleagues in my various work environments, both in Manitoba and across Canada. Soccer, too, has been an important influence in my life. Playing with the progressive Crescentwood Saturday soccer team has been good for both body and soul. Coaching young and youth players, both boys and girls, has been humbling. Supporting Sheffield Wednesday at professional club level and Canada at international level has required patience and an unbelievable degree of optimism. But the foremost influence was that I was born into a large and loving working class family. My father died from industrial disease. We relied heavily on public housing, public health and public education. My political views and my academic preoccupations and values have been shaped by this background. The second most important influence on my academic and political life was my experience in Africa. It was my work in Africa that led me to think seriously about how the international monetary system functions and to devote much of my life to studying it and arguing for its reform. What I would like to do today is spend some time reflecting on that experience and relate it to contemporary developments in the international monetary system. In the process, I will touch upon some of the difficulties of being a progressive economist working practically and theoretically in this area. I will also draw some links between my experience in Africa and my interest in alternative budgets in Canada, and between proposals made in the Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) and the recent debate about the taxation of banks as a means of stabilising the international monetary system.