Klaas Knot, the former President of the Central Bank of The Netherlands, gave a guest lecture at the John Stuart Mill College on 26 November 2025.
Last week, the John Stuart Mill College hosted another exciting extracurricular event: Klaas Knot, former President of the Central Bank of The Netherlands (DNB) delivered a guest lecture titled ‘Monetary policy in perspective: 14 years in the ECB Governing Council’.
Knot reflected on ‘3 episodes’ of monetary policy that happened while he was in the ECB Governing Council. The first episode covered the sovereign debt crisis, a period marked by stark differences in financing conditions across euro area countries. Episode two was discussing the low inflation era (2013-2019). The third episode happened after inflation rose in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.
A key takeaway from the lecture was the importance of fiscal policy strengthening monetary policy rather than obstructing it, certainly in times of crises.
After the lecture, there was a lively Q&A. The discussion further covered Knot’s perspective on Eurobonds as well as the new NATO-norm on countries to spend a set percentage of GDP on defence.
The John Stuart Mill College regularly hosts these kinds of high profile guest lectures, to provide their students with an even deeper understanding of a field, next to their existing curriculum.