Recently, De Nederlandsche Bank in coope:ration with the CentER for Economic Research of Tilburg University organised an international conference on monetary policy. This volume contains the papers, comments and speeches given on that occasion. The organisation of such a conference and the publication of this book were possible only through the efforts of a number of people. More in particular I would like to thank the organising committee (prof Onno de Beaufort Wijnholds, assoc prof Sylvester Eijffinger, dr Lex Hoogduin and Broos van der Werff) , Hans Haan the conference manager, Imelda Drubbel and Nicolette Ligtenberg who constituted the conference secretariat, Bert Groothoff who acted as press officer and Eric Schaling for their assistance. A special word of appreciation is due to mrs Bodil Andersen (Denmarks National Bank) and mr Kumiharu Shigehara (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) who accepted the difficult task of chairing the meetings which they did most admirably. Of course, a conference cannot even take place without participants and cannot be a success without good participants. I am very pleased that we could be the host of the eminent group of people who in my view made the conference such a success. Before the conference I thought it would be a one-time-event. After the event I am not so sure.
