According to media reports, Robert Mundell, the “father of the euro” and winner of the Nobel Prize in economics in 1999, died in Italy on Easter at the age of 88.
The report quoted Mundell’s son, Bill, as saying, “May he rest in peace, I can’t believe it’s Easter, and what’s even more incredible is that I dreamed last night that he was refreshed and lucid, as if I had witnessed his resurrection.
Born in October 1932 in Ontario, Canada, Mundell’s main academic achievements were his pioneering research in the field of dynamic money and his development of the theory of optimal currency areas, which advanced the development of supply-side economics and laid the foundation for the birth of the euro.
He predicted the emergence of three major currency zones in the world, namely the Euro zone, the US dollar zone and the Asian dollar zone, and envisioned that the “Asian dollar” would circulate in the zone, while the existing currencies of each country would continue to circulate, but they would have to establish a fixed exchange rate with the “Asian dollar”. The “Asian dollar” would circulate in the region, and the existing currencies of each country would continue to circulate, but a fixed exchange rate must be established with the “Asian dollar.
He also proposed a concept called “Impossible Trinity” (Impossible Trinity), which means that a country cannot simultaneously have an open capital account, a fixed or controlled exchange rate, and an independent monetary policy, all three of which must come at a price.
Mundell has served as an advisor to a number of international institutions and organizations, including the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Commission, the U.S. Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury Department, etc. He has also been the Bowen Chair Professor at Chinese University since 2009.
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