Price stability in an age of emergencies: Revisiting the case for buffer stocks

Isabella M. Weber, associate professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, revisits the case for buffer stocks for essential commodities like food staples and energy. Since the economist John Maynard Keynes's interventions at Bretton Woods Conference of 1944, the destabilizing effects of commodity price volatility have been a recurring concern for international economic governance. Weber argues that, similar to central bank policies, virtual and physical buffer stocks could be used to conduct open market operations on commodity markets and pursue price stabilization while also fostering climate change mitigation and adaptation.

A discussion with Cullen Hendrix and Maurice Obstfeld, C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow at PIIE, and a Q&A session with the audience will follow, moderated by PIIE president Adam S. Posen.

MODERATOR

Adam S. Posen 
President, PIIE

SPEAKERS

Maurice Obstfeld 
C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow, PIIE

Cullen S. Hendrix 
Senior Fellow, PIIE

Isabella M. Weber 
Associate Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst