Mundell on Global Currency Jude Wanniski April 28, 2005

From: From: Jude Wanniski  <jwanniski@polyconomics.com        
To:      Ben.S.Bernanke@ * * * * *.GOV   
Subject: Mundell world currency/cont
Bcc: Hoffmeister, Jett Wayne, Vlad
X-Attachments: c:\program files\qualcomm\eudora\attach\05-04-11-Salvatore1.doc;

10:26 am, 4/28/2005

Sorry.... It turns out the short commentary from Mundell I sent you earlier was only the beginning of the longer talk at the American Economic Association meeting in Philadelphia.  Here is the whole of it.

Jude

From: Jude Wanniski  <jwanniski@polyconomics.com        
To:      Ben.S.Bernanke@ * * * * *.GOV                                               
Subject: Mundell on global currency
X-Attachments: c:\program files\qualcomm\eudora\attach\Salvatore-MUNDELL 2005 TRANSCRIPT.doc;
9:56, 4/28/2005

Dear Ben:

I had dinner with Bob last night in NYC and I suggested you two make contact at some point. I told him about our exchange and he said he would like to see it, so I wonder if it is okay with you that I forward it to him.

He sent my this brief talk he gave in January on a world currency, which is nothing really new, but you might read it with your fresh understanding of the monetary issues from our perspective.  He is  very much interested in movements to a new "Bretton Woods arrangement," and is careful not to say he favors a "gold standard," as that throws off all kinds of confused signals. As Jim Baker put it in his 1987 IMF speech, the kind of common currency Mundell is talking about would be coordinated by use of a "reference point" that would include gold as an information signal.

Jude