I chose the subject for my lecture for the following reasons. First of all because I might have some comparative advantage in a subject related to monetary economics. Having joined the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, the relations of Hayek’s ideas on currency offer a special kind of interest.
And, finally, it was the publication mentioned which brought me into personal contact with Hayek. Fascinated (but, to indicate already, not convinced) by the approach, which was out of line with anything discussed in mainstream monetary theory at that time, I wished to include this paper in a reader on monetary policy issues I was preparing.