Learning from a Keynote speaker: Lessons from Merton Miller's PACAP addresses

For 10 of its first 11 years, Professor Merton Miller served as the Keynote speaker for the PACAP conference. This article reviews and synthesizes Professor Miller's remarks. His Keynote Addresses were wide-ranging and covered such topics as index arbitrage, stock market bubbles, portfolio insurance, regulation of financial markets, derivatives, capital controls and others. The connecting theme of Professor Miller's Addresses was his unyielding belief that capital markets, especially when unfettered by regulation, can and do play a critical role in facilitating economic growth and opportunity. He coupled that theme with a call for PACAP and its members to contribute to that growth and, thereby, to the well-being of the people of the Pacific Basin countries.