Working Paper

International Financial Crises

Rudi Dornbusch, Stanley Fischer
CESifo, Munich, 2003

CESifo Working Paper No. 926

Our friend and colleague Rüdiger Dornbusch passed away before he was able to complete his book based on the Munich Lectures in Economics that he gave in November 17, 1998, at the Center for Economic Studies of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. The lectures contain a fascinating overview of the mechanics and history of international financial crises showing the breadth and ingenuity of this eminent scholar. The lectures were lively and provocative, full of important insights and observations. Interestingly enough, Dornbusch expressed a substantial mistrust in the actions of political decision makers, supervisory agencies and central banks in the game that leads to the crisis and even collapse of financial systems, and he advocated supranational supervisory actions as a remedy.
CES has decided to prepare a transcript of the lectures, which are also available in the Internet as full length-videos. I am grateful to Paul Kremmel for his assistance.