Lucas Papademos
Encyclopedia
Lucas Papademos is a Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 economist who has been appointed as Prime Minister of Greece
Prime Minister of Greece
The Prime Minister of Greece , officially the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic , is the head of government of the Hellenic Republic and the leader of the Greek cabinet. The current interim Prime Minister is Lucas Papademos, a former Vice President of the European Central Bank, following...

 since 11 November 2011.

Previously, he was Governor of the Bank of Greece from 1994 to 2002 and Vice President of the European Central Bank
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank is the institution of the European Union that administers the monetary policy of the 17 EU Eurozone member states. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt,...

 from 2002 to 2010. He was also a visiting professor of public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Financial Studies
Center for Financial Studies
The Center for Financial Studies , located in Frankfurt, is an independent research institute affiliated to the Goethe University Frankfurt. It is financed via donations and contribu-tions from its members. Its sponsoring body is the Gesellschaft für Kapitalmarktforschung e.V., which counts amongst...

 at the University of Frankfurt.

Education and career

Papademos was born in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 but his parents were from the town of Desfina
Desfina
Desfina is a town and a former municipality in the southern part of Phocis, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Delphi, of which it is a municipal unit. At the 2001 census, its population was 2,431. It is found in foot of mountain Kirfis in altitude 680m....

 in Phocis
Phocis
Phocis is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Central Greece. It stretches from the western mountainsides of Parnassus on the east to the mountain range of Vardousia on the west, upon the Gulf of Corinth...

. Papademos after graduating from Athens College
Athens College
Athens College is a co-educational private independent school in Psychiko, Greece, a suburb of Athens, part of the Hellenic-American Educational Foundation which also includes Psychiko College, although both schools are usually referred to as "Athens College"...

, attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

, gaining a degree in physics in 1970, a masters degree in electrical engineering in 1972, and a doctorate in economics, in 1978.

In 1975, he worked with Franco Modigliani
Franco Modigliani
Franco Modigliani was an Italian economist at the MIT Sloan School of Management and MIT Department of Economics, and winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1985.-Life and career:...

 on the NAIRU
NAIRU
In monetarist economics, particularly the work of Milton Friedman, on which also worked Lucas Papademos and Franco Modigliani in 1975,NAIRU is an acronym for Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment, and refers to a level of unemployment below which inflation rises.It is widely used in...

 concept, introduced under the term NIRU (non-inflationary rate of unemployment).
He taught economics at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 from 1975 until 1984, and then at the University of Athens from 1988 to 1993.

He has served as Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, commonly known as the Boston Fed, is responsible for the First District of the Federal Reserve, which covers most of Connecticut , Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. It is headquartered in the Federal Reserve Bank Building in Boston,...

 in 1980. He joined the Bank of Greece
Bank of Greece
The Bank of Greece is the nationalcentral bank of Greece, located in Athens on Panepistimiou Street, with several branches across the country. Founded in 1927...

 in 1985 as Chief Economist
Chief economist
The Chief Economist is a single position job class having primary responsibility for the development, coordination, and production of economic and financial analysis...

, rising to Deputy Governor in 1993 and Governor in 1994. During his time as Governor of the national bank, Papademos was involved in Greece's transition from the drachma to the euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

 as its national currency.

After leaving the Bank of Greece in 2002, Papademos became the Vice President to Wim Duisenberg
Wim Duisenberg
Willem Frederik "Wim" Duisenberg was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party . He was the first President of the European Central Bank from 1 July 1998 until 31 October 2003. He was instrumental in the Introduction of the euro in the European Union in 2002. He was also credited for making numerous...

 (and then Jean-Claude Trichet
Jean-Claude Trichet
Jean-Claude Trichet is a French civil servant who was the president of the European Central Bank, a position he held from 2003 to 2011. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements...

) at the European Central Bank
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank is the institution of the European Union that administers the monetary policy of the 17 EU Eurozone member states. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt,...

 from 2002 to 2010. In 2010 he left that position to serve as an advisor to Prime Minister George Papandreou
George Papandreou
Georgios A. Papandreou , commonly anglicised to George and shortened to Γιώργος in Greek, is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece following his party's victory in the 2009 legislative election...

.

He has been a member of the Trilateral Commission
Trilateral Commission
The Trilateral Commission is a non-governmental, non-partisan discussion group founded by David Rockefeller in July 1973 to foster closer cooperation among the United States, Europe and Japan.-History:...

 since 1998.

He is a member of the Academy of Athens
Academy of Athens (modern)
The Academy of Athens is Greece's national academy, and the highest research establishment in the country. It was established in 1926, and operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Education...

.
He has published numerous articles in the fields of macroeconomic theory, the structure and functioning of financial markets, monetary analysis and policy, theory of chaos as well as on subjects concerning the economic performance, financial stability, financial instability and economic policy in the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

. He has also delivered addresses on the Greek debt crisis.

Prime Minister

Papademos was proposed for the position of Prime Minister of Greece on 10 November 2011, after the head of the governing party, George Papandreou
George Papandreou
Georgios A. Papandreou , commonly anglicised to George and shortened to Γιώργος in Greek, is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece following his party's victory in the 2009 legislative election...

, decided to step down, and allow a provisional coalition government
National unity government
A national unity government, government of national unity, or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other national emergency.- Canada :During World War I the Conservative government of Sir...

 to form with the task of taking Greece out of the major political crisis caused by the country's debt crisis.

Lucas Papademos set two conditions in order to accept being the prime minister of an interim government. First, that the new government would not have a very restricted life span as the New Democracy party had demanded and secondly, that political figures from both main political parties, PASOK and New Democracy, would participate, which was also vetoed by New Democracy. Eventually New Democracy accepted Papademos' demands, and the new cabinet includes Ministers from PASOK, New Democracy and the far right Popular Orthodox Rally.

After a week of political turmoil, the new coalition cabinet
Coalition Cabinet of Lucas Papademos
The Cabinet of Lucas Papademos succeeded the cabinet of George Papandreou, as an interim three-party coalition cabinet, leading a coalition government formed by the PASOK party, New Democracy party and Popular Orthodox Rally party, after Papandreou's decision to step down, and allow a provisional...

 and Prime Minister Lucas Papademos were formally sworn in on 11 November 2011. The new government is a coalition between three of five parliamentary parties, PASOK, New Democracy
New Democracy (Greece)
New Democracy is the main centre-right political party and one of the two major parties in Greece. It was founded in 1974 by Konstantinos Karamanlis and formed the first cabinet of the Third Hellenic Republic...

 and the Popular Orthodox Rally
Popular Orthodox Rally
The Popular Orthodox Rally or The People's Orthodox Rally , often abbreviated to ΛΑ.Ο.Σ as a pun on the Greek word for people, is a Greek party. According to its political program LA.O.S...

. The remaining two parliamentary parties, the Communist Party
Communist Party of Greece
Founded in 1918, the Communist Party of Greece , better known by its acronym, ΚΚΕ , is the oldest party on the Greek political scene.- Foundation :...

 and the Coalition of the Radical Left
Coalition of the Radical Left
The Coalition of the Radical Left , commonly known by its Greek abbreviation ΣΥΡΙΖΑ , is a coalition of left political parties in Greece...

 Party, had refused Papandreou's invitation to join talks on a new unity government.
It is the first time that the far right has joined a Greek government since the fall of the military junta  in 1974.

The coalition government's main task is to allow the EU bailout to proceed and eventually to pave the way for elections, temporarily set for February 2012. Papademos, who is not an elected PM, has said his priority will be to keep Greece in the eurozone.

Personal life

Papademos has been married to Shanna Ingram - of Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

 descent - for more than 30 years. They have no children.

External links


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