To some, retirement means a life of leisure. For Charles (Chuck) Freedman, scholar in residence in the department of economics, life is as busy as ever. In addition to teaching at the master’s level at Carleton, the former deputy governor of the Bank of Canada has been around the world, sharing his more than 30 years’ experience at the central bank with other countries.
Through the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an organization that helps ensure stability in the international monetary system by giving practical help to members and tracking the global economy, Freedman is disseminating best practices for inflation targeting, helping central banks with forecasting, and conducting research on a coherent world economic model.
“Canada has a long record of helping and providing technical assistance to other countries,” says Freedman. “That effort helps create better policy to help economies grow, function well and bring people out of poverty. While good monetary policy isn’t enough on its own, bad monetary policy can be disastrous.”
“For people in emerging economies, this technical and theoretical support is helpful in their decisions on how to proceed,” says Freedman, who participated in IMF workshops in Turkey, Thailand and Ukraine on inflation targeting and is now working on a book on the subject. “A central bank thinking about adopting inflation targeting can learn from Canada’s experience adopting it and the challenges we had running it.”
On IMF missions to the National Bank of Ukraine, the Central Bank of Turkey, the Central Bank of Pakistan, the Central Bank of Russia and the Central Bank of Indonesia, Freedman focused on both monetary policy questions and issues surrounding the organization and structure of central banks.
“Issues range from who needs to work together to create a forecast of future developments to how to integrate models and knowledge. They all affect policy decisions,” says Freedman. “I can help with relatively simple things such as how to effectively present a forecast, to larger questions of what’s involved in joining the world economy.”
Back in Ottawa, co-directors Freedman and Stephen Ferris are preparing for the launch of the Centre for Monetary and Financial Economics at Carleton in January 2009. Freedman hopes to continue to engage central banks and governments in emerging economies through the new centre, drawing on the resources of the national capital.
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