Johannes ‘Johan’ Witteveen
Obituary: OMFIF remembers Johan Witteveen
Thursday 2 May 2019 Vol.10 Ed.18.4
Johannes ‘Johan’ Witteveen, former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, who has died in the Netherlands aged 97, is the subject of a special two-part tribute. Witteveen became honorary chairman of the OMFIF advisory council in 2016. This marked his last visit to London, when, aged 95, he gave a vigorous speech at the British Treasury to launch the OMFIF Press book When Britain Went Bust, an account of the 1976 UK sterling crisis in which Witteveen played an important role.
Witteveen: Rationalist suffused with humanity
By David Green in London
Hendrikus Johannes ‘Johan’ Witteveen, economist, philosopher, politician and international public servant, who died on 23 April in the Netherlands aged 97, was best known internationally for his 1973-78 term as IMF managing director. He lived a rich and varied life spanning many worlds, and his academic strength and commitment to economics brought him a succession of roles: the teaching of economics in Rotterdam, and positions in Dutch political life including the posts of finance minister and deputy prime minister.
Read the full remarks on the website.
Johannes ‘Johan’ Witteveen
Staunch Keynesian and spiritual disciple
By Roel Janssen in Amsterdam
Johan Witteveen will be remembered in the Netherlands as a brilliant economist, the last Keynesian of his generation, a lucid liberal and a life-long adherent of the Sufi spiritual movement. In 2012 he published his memoirs, The Magic of Harmony. The title reflected the pillars of his economic and human wisdom: the natural movement towards harmony and the belief in a spiritual world beyond materialism. Through his Sufi convictions, he found the wherewithal to accept a great many terrible private sorrows.
Read the full remarks on the website.
