1911.10.5.–1993.2.23.
○ Natural death
Belgian-American economist who identified the contradiction of the dollar reserve system, the Triffin dilemma
Born in Flobecq, Belgium, Triffin studied law and economics at the Catholic University of Leuven, moved to the United States in 1935 and took a Harvard doctorate in 1938. A US citizen from 1942, he worked at the Federal Reserve (1942–46), the IMF (1946–48) and the OEEC (1948–51), helping to administer the Marshall Plan, and became a professor at Yale in 1951. In 1959 testimony to Congress and in Gold and the Dollar Crisis (1960) he warned that the United States had to run deficits to supply the world with reserves, and that the growing stock of dollars abroad would erode confidence in their convertibility into gold. Returning to Europe in 1977, he helped develop the European Monetary System, and was made a baron in 1989.
Also known as: Robert, Baron Triffin
Activities and affiliations
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1938–1993
Scholarship and theory
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1942–1946
United States state institutionsFederal Reserve System
Economy, finance and planning
Career Timeline
- 1938Harvard doctorate in economics
- 1942–1946US Federal Reserve System
- 1946–1948International Monetary Fund
- 1948–1951Organisation for European Economic Co-operation
- 1951–1977Professor of economics at Yale
- 1959Testified to Congress on the flaws of the Bretton Woods system
- 1989Made a baron