If this divergence in optimal monetary policy stance increases, the strains on the system will grow. Postponed adjustment will only serve to increase vulnerabilities. In the past, the frustration of adjustment by surplus countries generated deflationary pressures on the rest of the world. Similarly, today, the adjustment burden is being shifted to others.
As a result of communication problems, however, it was ultimately not possible to include his work in the process. Nonetheless, it is very interesting to see what was thought about his design at that time. W.B. Yeats himself called it ‘one magnificent design’. Thomas Bodkin, at that time a Governor of the Irish National Gallery, described it as ‘a superb design’.