Interview of Jacques de Larosière: In search of a better world financial order

Abstract

Jacques de Larosière (born 1929) played for more than half a century an influential role on the international monetary scene. He was Director of the French Treasury, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Governor of the Banque de France and President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In 2008, at the age of 79 years, he chaired the so-called De Larosière Committee which provided the blueprint for a fundamental reform of financial supervision in the European Union. Highlights of his career were the management of the Mexican debt crisis in the 1980s and his role in the process of economic and monetary integration in Europe, especially as a member of the Delors Committee. In his analyses he focuses on the "financialization" of our econ-omies and the ensuing problems with debt and asset price bubbles, for which the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system was an important cause. As part of a research program on collecting memories, this paper publishes the results of several interviews and discussions with him.