Simon Johnson is the Central Bank’s 3rd Distinguished Visiting Fellow

Dr. Simon Johnson, the Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, is the Central Bank of Barbados’ 2016 Distinguished Visiting Fellow.

Johnson will be the special guest at the 3rd Caribbean Economic Forum on March 22. The 90-minute forum, which will be broadcast live both locally and regionally as well as streamed online, will once again be moderated by Julian Rogers. The topic for this year’s event is “What’s next for the Global Economy?”

During his month-long visit, which begins March 1, Johnson will also engage with government officials, civil servants, members of the financial sector, educators and students and Central Bank staff. His first official event will be a wide-ranging one-on-one interview with Central Bank Governor, Dr. DeLisle Worrell.

Highlights of Dr. Johnson’s visit:

• Session to public sector officials
• Presentation at the CARTAC conference
• Region-wide online conference
• Lecture at UWI, Cave Hill
• Session with commercial bank representatives
• Presentation to the Barbados Industrial Development Corporation (BIDC) on the occasion of its 60th Anniversary
• Internal sessions with Central Bank of Barbados staffers

Dr. Johnson, who is conducting extensive research on digital currencies, suggests that “a central bank-issued digital currency would provide the essential safe harbor for transactions balances – money that is not subject to runs. A fully transparent and robust decentralized record of financial transactions could increase accountability and reduce counter-party risk.”

Simon Johnson will be the Central Bank’s 3rd Distinguished Visiting Fellow, following after Dr. Fred Bergsten, founder of the Peterson Institute in 2014 and Dr. Peter Blair Henry, Dean of New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business in 2015.

During the augural Caribbean Economic Forum in 2014, Dr. Bergsten discussed strategies for the world economy in the 21st century, and, speaking on local matters, praised Barbados' stout defense of its exchange rate. The following year, Dr. Henry spoke of the unpopular decisions governments must sometimes make to repair the economy. He also outlined the three elements critical to successful leadership in a crisis: discipline, clarity and trust.

2016-02-23