is basically the governors of the bank of england from the bank of france, european central bank, salon, india, brazil and the bis general manager. that's the elite meeting where i think a lot of the discussions have gone on about cordoning the response to the global financial crisis. there's 18 of them at that in the find and on the 18th floor. a fabulous diamond. it has views over friends and switzerland and germany. it's very global. the next day there's the global economy meeting. that's 30 countries. and vignette countries like turkey and the philippines and indonesia will attend the as was the 15 or 18 that were there the previous night. they sit around the table and another 15 countries are allowed to attend the meeting but are not really supposed to speak unless it's really, really urgent. countries like hungary, for example, or macedonia. they are allowed to attend but they don't talk. sorry, i think macedonia is not allowed to attend because the final 15, the third division, they're not allowed to attend. they just have to hang around. but they are allowed to attend the launch

england and france and spain in particular so the basic program was to pay off the debt from the war that was crippling to create a centralized currency, the central bank, industrialized developed to trade treaties where jefferson had the bigger vision but he became president and as they tend to do sees the world differently after the war in office it is sharpened his focus and he wrote to a friend that basically says thanks to the blitz just like satan told adam and eve at a paradise the british have pulled us out of the agrarian model now we have to become the industrial society so you will see jeffersonian and hamiltonian republics with the party that we associate today. a and your second question? >> [inaudible] >> today's business the educational and i go into detail how the association came together. it is very much active as a knowledge society today with his wonderful and prestigious to be appointed they have a great library collection and sponsors dollars pfiffner and lecture series and in fact, if you read the official injury reshape their own founding to the 1743 proposal

of england, bank of france. and india and brazil. dis general manager. that is the elite meeting where a lot of the discussions have gone on about coordinating the response to the global financial crisis. those are 18 of them in that. of fine dining room on the 18th floor. at fabulous dining room. use of france and switzerland and germany. very global as befits a global institution. the next date that is the global economy meeting, and that is 30 countries, and then you have countries like turkey and the philippines and indonesia that will attend as well as the 15 or 18 that would have the previous night. and they sit around the table. in another 15 countries are allowed to attend the meeting but are not really supposed to speak unless it is really, really urgent. countries like hungary, for example, or macedonia. they are allowed to attend, but they don't talk. or no -- actually, macedonia is not allowed to attend. the final 15, the third division, they're not even allowed to attend a global economy meeting. th

the bank of england and the federal reserve to could have a place to meet that wasn't supremely protected and inviolable. well, what does that mean? it means that this is an international organization and it is a unique hybrid in the world. it is the world's oldest global financial institution before the imf, before the world bank. it got all of the same protections for almost all of the united nations and from the moment it was set up with a national treaty, it is just almost extraterritorial in the same as the british embassy that has that level of protection. during the 1930s, the central bankers had a place where they can meet and discuss things away from politicians and the way it goes from the eyes of reporters. during the '30s, things were so secretive. there was a "new york times" reporter who did report on this for the magazine. and he said after these meetings come he wasn't even allowed into the room when it was all gone. ..

the bank of england releases some information as well. but it was pretty solid that we don't want to be release the information about the meetings. it's a juggling act. powerful people meeting in secret are not going say i'll tell you everything we talked about. pressure is being put on them. it's happening. t a kind of, you know, it's a very pressure. terrorist a shift in about institutions around the world on social media and what happened in the arab spring and the occupy movement. people are demanding accountability nowadays. i feel the bis needs to adapt to that. >> i want to open the discussion to the whole room. just a housekeeping reminder, if you could wait for the microphone to come to you before you start speaking. and normally we ask everyone to say who they are. since the cameras -- not everybody wants to say that. you can say i'm roger rob rabbit. and i want to mention this. not are all on the record. please feel free, if you would like to tweet using #political forum. and@worldpolicy. do we have a question? >> hi, i'm bill.

that's what the bank of england. walter bagehot wrote a book about and that establish some of the doctrine of what central bankers have been doing since 200 years since. you're the lead of last resorts your you lend freely at ability rate. you stand ready to make money available when it is otherwise not. it's not a seamless progress of, for the good when you look at its history. a lot of you probably know the stories of the 1920s what happened in germany. the power of the central bankers use and it sometimes misused. so this is a prime example. after world war i there's reparation payments the german government is supposed to make. and a mannamed rudolph was the central bank for germany in the early 1920s and he saw it as his priotic duty to print money, however much was needed fund the government to meet its obligations. you can imagine how the story ends. you just print without regard what happened to the price level. it becomes an inflationary force. he had this odd obsession with physical technical job of printin