Short Bio of author
Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay,
Ph.D. Rodrigue Tremblay (born October 13, 1939) is a Canadian-born
economist, political figure, humanist and professor. He taught economics at
the Université de Montréal. He specializes in macroeconomics,
international trade and finance, and public finance. He is a prolific author
of books in economics, politics and ethics. Born in Matane, Québec, Canada, he has a B.A. from the
Université Laval (1961), a B.Sc. in Economics from the
Université de Montréal (1963). Tremblay did his graduate work
at Stanford University where he obtained a M.A. in Economics (1965) and a
Ph.D. in Economics (1968). He has been a professor of economics at the Université de
Montréal since 1967. He is professor emeritus since 2002. Tremblay was president of the Association canadienne de science
économique (1974-75) and of the North American Economics and Finance
Association (1986-87). He was chairman of the Department of Economics of the
Université de Montréal (1973-76)), member of the Committee of
Dispute Settlements of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
(1989-93) and vice-president of the Association internationale des
économistes de langue française (AIELF), from 1999 to 2005. He was invited scholar and economic consultant at the Bank of Canada,
the Economic Council of Canada, the Quebec Commission of Inquiry on the
Quebec Liquor Trade, the West African Monetary Union, the Royal Commission on
the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada (MacDonald
Commission) and the United Nations. Tremblay presided at the foundation of
the North American Review of Economics and Finance and was associate editor
of the Review L'Action nationale
and the financial weekly Les Affaires. Rodrigue Tremblay was
elected member of the National Assembly of Quebec for the Montreal riding of
Gouin on November 15, 1976, as candidate of the Parti
Québécois. He served as Minister of Industry and Trade in the
Government of Quebec, from 1976 to 1979. He sponsored the sale of wine in
Quebec's 12,000 private grocery stores. He resigned from the Lévesque
Cabinet on September 19, 1979. He resumed his academic career on April 15,
1981. Published books The Role of International Financial Flows in the
International Payments Mechanism, University Microfilms, 1967 La science économique, 1967 L'Économique, une introduction à
l'analyse des problèmes économiques de toute
société, 1969 Indépendance et marché commun
Québec-USA, 1970 Africa and Monetary Integration, 1970 L'Économique, problèmes et exercices,
1970 La théorie du commerce international, 1971 La théorie monétaire internationale,
1972 Analyse microéconomique, 1975 L'Économie québécoise, 1976 L'Indépendance économique du Canada
français, 1977 La 3e Option, 1979 Le Québec en crise, 1981 Économie et finances publiques, 1982 Issues in North American Economics and Finance, 1987 Le rôle des exportations dans la croissance et
le développement économique, Institut de recherches politiques,
1990 Macroéconomique moderne, théories et
réalités, 1992 Économie et finances publiques, 1997 Politique et Économie, 1998 Les Grand enjeux politiques et économiques du
Québec, 1999 L'heure juste, 2001 Pourquoi Bush veut la guerre, 2003 Le nouvel empire américain, 2004 The New American Empire, 2004 Yeni Amerikan Imparatorlugu, 2007 Le Code pour une éthique globale, 2009 The Code for Global Ethics, (Canada) 2009 The Code for Global Ethics, (USA) 2010. Contributions to economics Rodrigue Tremblay has made contributions in many fields of economics
and economic policy, especially in vulgarisation, international economics,
international trade, and has authored several texbooks on economics and
macroeconomics. There are his contributions in the fields of international economics,
economic development and economic cycles. He demonstrated the crucial role of
short term capital movements in balance of payments adjustment (Canadian
Journal of Economics, 1968). His
work on economic cycles innovated by identifying economic and political
shocks as factors of economic instability (Review of North American
Economics and Finance, 1988).
Tremblay then linked trade and development through economies of scale and
increasing returns in his work on "Export-Led Growth" (Review of
North American Economics and Finance,
1991). Dr. Tremblay's works in international trade and economic integration
have been highly influential, especially in trade policy and monetary policy.
In the early 1970s, Tremblay influenced monetary policy in Africa as an
adviser to the West African Monetary Union (see his book on Africa and
Monetary integration, 1970). In
1988, Tremblay presided the committee of Canadian economists that argued
successfully for the establishment of a Canada-U.S. free trade agreement and
later, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, the
U.S. and Mexico. Contributions to politics
Rodrigue Tremblay is a public intellectual who is known for his
contributions to the understanding of international, Canadian and Quebec
politics. His political analyses have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail, in French-language newspapers such as "Le
Devoir, La Presse, Le Soleil, and several other publications. In 1970, he was among the first economists to propose a North
American Common Market with his book Indépendance et marché
commun Québec–États-Unis. Nineteen years later, on January 1, 1989, Canada
and the United States entered into a North American Free Trade Area which was
enlarged to include Mexico in 1994. On the invitation of the Canadian
government, he served as an arbiter on the Committee of Dispute Settlements
of NAFTA, from 1989 to 1993. Previously, he had served as Minister of
Industry and Commerce in the Government of Quebec, from 1976 to 1979. Also in
1979, he published a manifest for the reform of Canadian federalism entitled La
3e option (The 3rd Option) which
envisaged a greater degree of political autonomy for the French-speaking
province of Quebec. In 1987, when the federal government under Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney introduced the "Meech Lake Accord, it included some of
Tremblay's ideas about political decentralization. From 1999 to 2004, Rodrigue Tremblay published four books about
politics and geopolitics. The first, in 1999, (Les grands enjeux
politiques et économiques du Québec) reproduced a series of articles published in the
financial weekly Les Affaires.
In 2002, Rodrigue Tremblay published a book of political philosophy entitled L’Heure
Juste (The Way It Is). In 2003, his book entitled Pourquoi Bush veut la guerre, Religion,
politique et pétrole dans les conflits internationaux, published more than one month before the event of
the Iraq war, dealt with the March 20, 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq. It
was published in the USA, in 2004, under the title “The New American
Empire”. It was published in Europe, in 2004, under the title “Le
Nouvel empire américain”. The book was also published in Turkey,
in 2007, under the title “Yeni Amerikan Imparatorlugu”. Contributions to ethics
In 2009 (in French) and in 2009 and in 2010 (in English), Dr.
Tremblay published The Code for Global Ethics, with a preface by Dr. Paul Kurtz. The book codifies in a pedagogical way the most fundamental humanist
principles of human behavior. The Code for Global Ethics, proposes a progressive and modern code of global
ethics that is summarized under 10 general humanist rules or principles. The
themes range from human dignity, human life, tolerance, the need to share,
and the requirement to avoid domination and superstition, to the preservation
of the Earth's natural environment, the issue of violence and wars, the
question of political and economic democracy, the separation of Church and
State, and the central role of education and knowledge as gateways to
personal happiness, independence, and individual freedom. The book is also a
critique of many religion-based ethical rules and raises the issue of moral
dilemmas. Honors -Fellow, Université de Montréal, 1961 -Woodrow Wilson Fellow, 1963 -Ford International Fellow, Stanford University,
1964 -Prize for excellence in teaching, Université
de Montréal, 1998 -Emeritus professor, 2002 -Prix Condorcet, 2004 Partial bibliography The Code for Global Ethics, Ten humanist
Principles, Rodrigue Tremblay,
Prometheus, 2010, ISBN 978-1616-141721 The Code for Global Ethics, Toward a Humanist
Civilization, Rodrigue Tremblay,
Trafford, 2009, ISBN 978-1426-913587 Le code pour une éthique globale, vers une
civilisation humaniste, Rodrigue
Tremblay, Liber, 2009, ISBN 978-2895-781738 The New American Empire, (in Turkish), Rodrigue Tremblay, Nova publishing,
Ankara, Turkey, 2006, ISBN 9944119399 The New American Empire, Rodrigue Tremblay, Infinity, 2004, ISBN
0-7414-1887-8 Le Nouvel Empire Américain, Causes et
conséquences pour les Etats-Unis et pour le monde, Rodrigue Tremblay, L'Harmattan, 2004, ISBN
2-7475-6287-5 Pourquoi Bush Veut la Guerre, Rodrigue Tremblay, Les Intouchables, 2003, ISBN
2-89549-099-6 L'Heure Juste, Rodrigue Tremblay, 2002, Stanke International, ISBN 2-7604-0850-7 Les Grands Enjeux Politiques et
Économiques du Québec,
Transcontinental Inc., Rodrigue Tremblay, 1999, ISBN 2-89472-115-3. Some quotations from Rodrigue Tremblay --“More often
than not, the consequences of public policies, good or bad, are felt many
years after they have been taken.” --“In a
democracy, it is not always the case that voters choose their own government.
It just happens that those who contribute large sums of money to candidates
or who happen to control the media play a much more important role in
choosing governments than ordinary voters. That is why it is only
in rare occasions that it can be said that 'people have the government they
deserve'; —sometimes, a population may get a worse government than it
truly deserves; —and, more rarely perhaps, it can, of no fault of its
own, get a better government than it deserves.” --“If
governments and their central banks could create real economic prosperity
just by printing money, all countries of the world would be rich.” --”War is very
dangerous to democracy, because this creates an occasion for power hungry men
to use the arguments of expediency and of practical necessity to centralize
power in a few hands, thus bypassing normal constitutional restraints,
sometimes, on a permanent and irreversible basis.” --“When you
share a problem with someone, it is cut in half.” --“Throughout
history, there has been a recurring tendency for the followers of different
gods, as members of some imperial religions, to fight each other in bloody
wars, and I would add, useless wars, to see whose god is the
strongest.” -- “Our modern
problems are more and more global in nature, while our moral worldview is
still essentially parochial.” --“The
religion-based promise of eternal life is undoubtedly the greatest hoax ever
perpetrated on humankind.” --"With the
current globalization of our problems, we need to extend our circle of
empathy and view humanity as a worldwide extended human family. As long as we
refrain from facing that challenge, divisiveness and unsolvable conflicts
will persist." --“A society constrained by its religious hang-ups is deprived
of the fundamental tools of economic progress and will be left behind.” --“A [US] president who does not start a war abroad
or who does not enlarge one already in progress is open to criticism and is
likely to suffer politically. He must be seen less as a president than as
“commander-in-chief”, in effect, as an emperor.” --“The unrestricted use of money in politics
can turn a vibrant democracy into a decadent plutocracy just as surely as
poisoning a well can destroy a village.” --“Those who are
opposed to military wars should also oppose trade wars, because the latter
lead to the former.” --“In a
democracy, voters' abstentionism is, in fact, often a vote against
inefficient or corrupt politicians.” --“When
there exists a state of permanent warfare, economic decline is to be
expected. Indeed, the main reason why the overall standard of living is
stagnating in some countries, notably in the United States, is due to the
high proportion of resources being directed toward the parasitic
military-industrial establishment.” --“There are
none more ferocious than those who kill with religious zeal.” --"The American invasion of Iraq to gain
control over its vast oil reserves could go down in history as the biggest
planned heist of the 21st Century." --"Interests ride on the white horses of
ideas and ideologies." --"One of the greatest benefits of a well
functioning democracy is its capacity to bring about change: change of
government, change of policies, change in the distribution of income and
wealth... etc., and the avoidance of stagnation and immobilily." --"The world should take notice when someone
with a fanatic mind and with powerful means receives his marching orders from
Heaven." --"Wars are cruel gimmicks designed to
enrich the few and impoverish the many." --"It is not faith that produces freedom;
knowledge brings freedom." --"An incompetent politician who surrounds
himself with competent people can pull it off. However, if he is dumb enough
to surround himself with like-minded people, failure becomes a
certainty." --"The two biggest curses of humanity have
been religions and wars, and often they are intertwined." --"An organized minority is usually stronger
politically than a disorganized majority." --"People invented gods to console
themselves from their absence of control over life and death." --"On the political chessboard, those in the
middle may have influence, but they rarely have power." --"Cemeteries are full of people with large
pension funds." --"The fact that we do not have a good
government does not mean that we are not governed." --"In our media-run world, people get the
politicians that pundits and journalists deserve." --"A government bent on controlling the
people can never gather enough information on its citizens." --"Hell on Earth is when one has too few
things... or too many." --"It would be nothing less than scandalous
for the United States, which was founded on humanistic and democratic
principles, to attempt to replace the old empires of the past and to deny the
fundamental democratic right of other peoples and other nations to
self-determination." --"The 2003 Iraq war was launched because
powerful interests in the United States, connected to the state of Israel, to
the oil industry and to the Pentagon, wanted to take advantage of the
political opportunity created by the September 11, 2001 attacks to implement
a plan of invasion of Iraq they had prepared years before." Resources on Rodrigue TremblayDepartment
of Economics of the Université de Montréal External links 1)
University
of Montreal (English) 2)
Université
de Montréal (Français) 3)
Université
de Montréal (fiche professionnelle) 4)
The New American Empire (book) 5)
Le nouvel empire
américain (livre) 7) Livres de Rodrigue
Tremblay disponibles sur Internet 8) Le Code pour une
éthique globale (livre) 9) The Code for Global Ethics
(book) 10) The Code for Global
Ethics on Amazon.com Source: Université de Montréal |