Edwin (Ted) M. Truman (born 1941) is an American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

specializing in international financial institutions, especially the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...

and

sovereign wealth funds A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), sovereign investment fund, or social wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as ...

. He has been a Senior Fellow with the

Peterson Institute for International Economics The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), known until 2006 as the Institute for International Economics (IIE), is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded by C. Fred Bergsten in 1981 and has been led by ...

since 2001. Truman has worked quietly over the years on international financial crises issues. Nobel laureate

Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was ...

described Truman as the "

George Smiley George Smiley OBE is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is a career intelligence officer with "The Circus", the British overseas intelligence agency. He is a central character in the novels ''Call for the Dead'', '' A Mu ...

of international economics".

Family background and education

The son of political scientist

David Truman David Bicknell Truman (June 1, 1913 – August 28, 2003) was an American academic who served as the 15th president of Mount Holyoke College from 1969–1978. He is also known for his role as a Columbia University administrator during the Columbia ...

, Edwin Truman was awarded a BA from Amherst College in 1963, and a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1976. In 1988 Amherst College awarded him an Honorary LL.D.

Career

From 1977 to 1998 Truman directed the Division of International Finance at the

Federal Reserve System The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

From 1983 to 1998 he was a staff economist for the

Federal Open Market Committee The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a committee within the Federal Reserve System (the Fed), is charged under United States law with overseeing the nation's open market operations (e.g., the Fed's buying and selling of United States Treas ...

. In December 1998, President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

, appointed Truman Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury for International Affairs. In 2001, he joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics as a Senior Fellow. In 2009, he was recruited by Treasury Secretary

Timothy Geithner Timothy Franz Geithner (; born August 18, 1961) is a former American central banker who served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. He was the President of the Federal Reserve Bank o ...

as a temporary advisor to develop policies for the April

2009 G-20 London summit The 2009 G20 London Summit was the second meeting of the G20 heads of government/heads of state, which was held in London on 2 April 2009 at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre to discuss financial markets and the world economy. It followed the first ...

Currently, he is on the advisory board of OMFIF where he writes various articles regarding the monetary and financial situation.

Policy work

Truman has been a member of many international organizations and working groups. He has been a member of: * G-7 Working Group on Exchange Market Intervention (1982–83) * G-10 Working Group on the Resolution of Sovereign Liquidity Crises (1995–96) * G-10-sponsored Working Party on Financial Stability in Emerging Market Economies (1996–97) * G-22 Working Party on Transparency and Accountability (1998) * Financial Stability Forum's Working Group on Highly Leveraged Institutions (1999–2000) Truman is a supporter of the IMF. He has proposed a special, on-time allocation of $250bn in SDRs by donor member countries as a way of dramatically building confidence in co-operative solutions to the global recession and to persuade countries not to manage their exchange rates in order to build up foreign exchange surpluses. He urged the

G-20 The G20 or Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, ...

'to commit to substantial and sustained actions for a period that matches the likely duration of the crisis'. Truman urged that IMF should enforce the coordinated plan, that it should keep a real-time, public scorecard identifying countries which are not doing their part.

Advocacy

Truman has led international advocacy efforts to defend Andreas Georgiou, the former head of the

Hellenic Statistical Authority The Hellenic Statistical Authority ( el, Ελληνική Στατιστική Αρχή ), known by its acronym ELSTAT ( el, ΕΛ.ΣΤΑΤ), is the national statistical service of Greece. The purpose of ELSTAT is to produce, on a regular basis, o ...

who has been the target of multiple prosecutions and lawsuits.

Bibliography

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References

External links

* * * 21st-century American economists Clinton administration personnel Living people 1941 births Peterson Institute for International Economics Federal Reserve economists 20th-century American economists {{US-economist-stub