Two central bankers have been catching intense media attention over the past couple of months. One is Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui. He is in a bit of a dog house for his investments in the now notorious Murakami Fund, as well as for some of the other ways he has been moving his money about.
The other is Leszek Balcerowicz, the governor of the National Bank of Poland. Balcerowicz is also in trouble, although his is quite different from the kind Fukui is in.
Balcerowicz is a very determined and highly outspoken central banker. He is strongly committed to all that a central bank should stand for as the defender of the national currency: price stability, exchange rate stability, efficient and healthy financial markets. He also is a staunch advocate of economic reforms. Indeed he was the architect of many of the initial reforms that brought Poland into the world of market economics.