Policies in International Finance 2001-2005

A REAL-TIME RECORD IN SPEECHES AND TESTIMONY

John B. Taylor

From 2001 to 2005, John Taylor served as the Under Secretary of Treasury for International Affairs. This web site is a collection of speeches and testimony given by Taylor during that period, annotated and organized by topic. As Taylor describes in the preface to this collection, these four years were a remarkable and unique period. There was a global downturn and recovery, several ongoing financial crises which then seemed to stop, and fundamental reforms of the international financial institutions. And following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 there was also a battle against terrorist financing, financial reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq, and efforts to spread political and economic freedom around the world.

The job of Under Secretary is highly operational, but it requires much public speaking and testifying. Over 100 of Taylor’s speeches were made available in written form at the time they were given. In their unedited form, they provide a real time record of many key events and make it possible to compare what was said to what was done, to see what worked and what did not. For this reason the speeches have not been edited for this collection, but they have been organized into 16 topical chapters with new material describing the items and providing background, thereby making them useful and accessible to historians, economists, and political scientists interested in international finance and policy. An appendix provides links to all the speeches in chronological order.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

List of Illustrations

Chapters (Links to speeches in each chapter are found in chronological order at the end of each chapter)

1. The Overall International Economic Policy Agenda

2. Financial Reconstruction in Iraq

3. Measuring and Accelerating Results in Afghanistan Reconstruction
4. International Cooperation in Combating the Financing of Terrorists

5. Reform Agenda at the International Financial Institutions

6. Essential Reform of the International Financial System: Collective Action Clauses

7. Dealing with Financial Crises: 2001-2002

8. Dealing with Failed States

9. Millennium Challenge Account

10. New Directions in U.S. Economic Relations with Japan

11. China and the Exchange Rate Issue

12. Supporting Economic Freedom and Pro-Growth Policies

13. Broader Middle East and North Africa

14. The Sub-Saharan African Region

15. Latin America

16. Monetary Policy around the World

Appendix: Full List of Speeches in Chronological Order from 2001 to 2005

Short Bio, Photo, Taylor’s Stanford Web page