The role of central banks in our monetary system is one that is sometimes hotly debated. Regardless of whether you see central banks as a positive or negative force on the system, there can be no doubt that they have had and continue to have an enormous impact on our money and the system we use to engage in commercial activity.
Perhaps no one has had a better inside view of the impact of central banks and money on our society during out lifetimes than Robert Pringle. Here is a bit of background on his long and distinguished career which included his founding of Central Banking Publications.
The late Paul Volcker in conversation with Robert Pringle in 2014
(in this article Robert Pringle suggests Paul Volcker was a secret central bank skeptic)
(in this article Robert Pringle suggests Paul Volcker was a secret central bank skeptic)
"Robert Pringle has pursued a career as an economics author, editor and commentator, specializing in money, banking and capital markets.
He is also an entrepeneur. In 1990 he founded Central Banking Publications, a financial publisher specialising in public policy and financial markets. Central Banking journal, which he edited for 20 years, has subscribers in 120 countries including the great majority of the world’s central banks. He remains chairman of the company.
Robert has monitored and commented on changes in financial markets and the monetary policies of central banks around the world for more than 40 years.
In addition to numerous articles for a wide variety of journals, he has published several books and edited more than 50 volumes of collected papers, surveys and training manuals for central bankers and market regulators. He has organised regular seminars and training sessions attended by more than 1,000 senior monetary policy-makers.
After obtaining a Masters degree in economics, sociology and history from King’s College, Cambridge University and post-graduate study at the London School of Economics, Robert joined The Banker, part of the FT group, later being appointed the Editor.
He also served as deputy director of the Committee on Invisible Exports, a body representing a wide range of UK service sectors, which was set up by the Bank of England to study and publicise the contribution made by financial, business, professional and allied services to world trade and the UK economy. He led a study that made the first published estimates of the invisible earnings of UK professions such as law, medicine and accountancy.
From 1979 to 1986 he was the first executive director of the Group of 30, an influential think tank based at the time in the World Trade Centre, New York (it has since moved to Washington, DC). For the G30, Robert co-authored pioneering studies of the foreign exchange and interbank markets, and on IMF borrowing from the private markets, and the emerging profession of official reserve management.
His books and monographs include “Banking in Britain”, “The Growth Merchants” (a polemic on the monetary policies pursued by the UK in the 1970s), and “The Contemporary Relevance of David Hume” a study of the Scottish philosopher. With co-author Marjorie Deane, he wrote “The Central Banks” (Hamish Hamilton, 1994), with a foreword by Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
At Central Banking (now part of Incisive Media) he represents the company at conferences around the world, and knows personally many of the leading financial statesmen, central bank governors and ministers of finance."
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After following these issues for many years, I see all kinds of views out there towards central banks and the monetary system we have today. Debate continues to rage on whether or not the system we have now is sustainable long term. Should we expect things to stay pretty much the same for a long time? Will some kind of new crisis upend our present system forcing some kind of major change? If that does happen, what will that change look like?
I suspect most people would be very interested to hear what someone who has worked inside this system for decades thinks about these kinds of questions. Most of us would love to get a chance to ask questions like this to someone who has seen how things work (and sometimes don't work) inside the system now primarily run by the major central banks around the world.
Readers here will soon get that opportunity. Robert Pringle has offered to share some of his insights into all these issues with us based on his direct observations of how the system operates. Mr. Pringle does not have to speculate about how things work because he has seen it all unfold from the inside.
I plan to run three articles for readers here in January 2020:
1) The Q&A interview with Robert Pringle - will publish on January 2, 2020.
2) A summary of some key points from his new book The Power of Money that Robert Pringle provided me by email.
3) A followup article where I select a couple of his answers in the Q&A interview that I want to emphasize as important points for readers here
I hope this interview article will get as many readers as possible so please feel free to pass it along to anyone who may have any interest in these kinds of issues.
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