In 1993, with the cooperation of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the Economics Department at the University of Texas hosted the first Conference on Monetary Economics (the “Murray S. Johnson” conference). The success of this first encounter prompted many of the participants to pursue the idea of repeating the event on an annual basis, following the original format and rotating among the major Texas institutions.
The following year an equally successful meeting was hosted by the Research Department of the Dallas Fed, and later on, from 1995 to 1997, the event was hosted in the Spring of each year by Texas A&M, Rice and Southern Methodist Universities. 1998 marked the “closing of the circle”, and the University of Texas hosted the encounter for the second time, followed again by the Dallas Fed in 1999, Texas A&M in 2000, Rice in 2001, Texas in 2002, the University of Houston in 2003, Southern Methodist in 2004 and Texas in 2005.
The format, which proved so successful the first time, has remained basically unchanged: an invitation to first-rate macro and monetary economists from anywhere, with discussants from the six major Texas institutions.
In Memoriam: Scott Freeman and Bruce Smith
Even the briefest “history” of the Texas Monetary Conference would be incomplete without reference to two outstanding scholars and dear friends who were instrumental in starting the Conference and in maintaining its standards: Scott Freeman and Bruce Smith.
Scott, who organized the first conference, died in July 2004; Bruce, a permanent presence in the Conference even before he moved from Cornell to the University of Texas, passed away in July 2002. By a tragic irony, both had been born the same year, both died at the highest level of their productivity, and both gave an example of grace under the punishment of their long illnesses. We still miss their intellect and their friendship.
