Career
He is famous for flagging the wild behaviour in the debt markets before the global storm hit in 2008 (Great Recession). In 1969, he began his career as an economist at the Bank of England, the central bank of the United Kingdom. In 1972 he joined the Bank of Canada, the central bank of Canada, where he spent 22 years.
His first six years at the Bank of Canada were with the Department of Banking and Financial Analysis, first as an economist and finally as Deputy Chief.
In 1978, White became Deputy Chief of the Research Department and was made Chief of the Department in 1979. He was appointed Adviser to the Governor in 1984 and Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada in September 1988.
In 1994, he joined the Bank for International Settlements ( Bank for International Settlements), the Swiss-based bank of central banks, as manager in the Monetary and Economic Department. From May 1995 to June 2008, he served as its Economic Adviser and Head of the Monetary and Economic Department.
He predicted financial crisis of 2007–2010 before 2007"s subprime meltdown (Subprime mortgage crisis).
He was one of the critics of Alan Greenspan"s theory of the role of Monetary Policy as early as 1996. He challenged the former Federal Reserve chairman"s view that central bankers can"t effectively slow the causes of asset bubbles. On August 28, 2003, White made his argument directly to Greenspan, at the Kansas City Federation"s annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
He retired from the Bank for International Settlements on 30 June, 2008.
In October 2009 he was appointed chairman of the Economic Development and Review Committee at the Organisation for Economic Company-operation and Development (Organization of European Cooperation and Development) in Paris. In his capacity as chairman, he also contributes to meetings of WP1 and the Economic Policy Committee of the Organization of European Cooperation and Development. William White has published articles on topics related to monetary and financial stability as well as the process of international cooperation in these areas.