Comment on Richard Cooper, "A Century of Central Bank Cooperation"

It is a pleasure to be here in Basel, to attend this fine conference at the BIS, and to see so many old friends. It is also a pleasure to have the opportunity of commenting on this paper by Richard Cooper. If you know Dick, you know that he is a stickler for definitions. Ask him to comment on a paper on the renminbi’s undervaluation, and he will question the author’s definition of “undervaluation. ” Ask him to comment on a paper on current account sustainability, and he will question the meaning of the term “sustainability. ” So it is only right that I should question what the author means by “central bank cooperation. ” In fact, Professor Cooper doesn’t provide a definition; rather, he provides a series of examples: information sharing, standards for information gathering, coordinated policy adjustments by central banks. Although illustrations are helpful, an explicit definition would still have helped to focus thought. But what I miss even more is an attempt to prioritize these forms of cooperation. Are some more productive or important than others? Are there some that we should be particularly concerned to promote? The paper is organized as a series of vignettes in central bank cooperation, but