BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Both messages are related to a question which is central in economics – and which is also a topic for our conference: What role should we assign to the state? And what role should markets play?
The Role of the state Ten or even five years ago, the opinion in the academic world was relatively unanimous with respect to the role of the state in the banking sector: The state and regulators were seen as an obstacle to economic growth, and state-owned banks were perceived as the flotsam and jetsam of free market economies.