astronomy

John Exter

John Exter is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Exter rather than just read about it. In short: John Exter was an American economist, member of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve System, and founder of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. He is also known for creating Exter's Pyramid.

Key takeaways

John Exter belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Exter to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Exter from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Exter was an American economist, member of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve System, and founder of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. He is also known for creating Exter's Pyramid.

Life and career Exter was born in 1910 and graduated from the College of Wooster (1928–1932). He then went to the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy and in 1939, to Harvard University for graduate work in economics because of his interest in understanding the causes of the Great Depression. After a stint at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during World War II, Exter joined the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System as an economist. In 1948 he served first as adviser to the Secretary of Finance of the Philippines and then to the Minister of Finance of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on the establishment of central banks. Between 1950 and 1953, Exter was the founder governor of the Central Bank of Ceylon. In 1953, he became the division chief for the Middle East at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In 1954, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York appointed him vice president in charge of international banking and precious metals operations. Exter left the New York Fed in 1959 to join First National City Bank (then the world's second largest bank) as a vice president. The next year he was promoted to senior vice president. As an international monetary adviser for the bank's International Banking Group he had special responsibilities for relations with foreign central banks and governments. In 1972 he took early retirement to become a private consultant. Exter was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Committee for Monetary Research & Education, the Mont Pelerin Society, and the Pilgrims of the United States. He and his wife Marion had four children.

Exter's Pyramid

Exter is known for creating Exter's Pyramid (also known as Exter's Golden Pyramid and Exter's Inverted Pyramid) for visualizing the organization of asset classes in terms of risk and size. In Exter's scheme, gold forms the small base of most reliable value, and asset classes on progressively higher levels are more risky. The larger size of asset classes at higher levels is representative of the higher total worldwide notional value of those assets. While Exter's original pyramid placed Third World debt at the top, today derivatives hold this dubious honor.

References

Les Jones. "John Exter's Inverted Pyramid of Assets". Archived from the original on 2013-04-30. Retrieved 2010-07-18. Franklin Sanders. "A Moneychanger Interview: Mr. John Exter". The Money Changer. Archived from the original on 2004-11-19. W. A. Wijewardena. "John Exter: Central Banker for all times". Daily News (Sri Lanka). Archived from the original on 2012-10-15. "Deaths: Exter, John". The New York Times. 2006-02-28. Interview with Janet Exter Butler, daughter of John Exter "Letter to the Department of State from the Federal Reserve Board, (p1932)". FRASER. Minutes of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. 1948-11-17.

External links Systemic Fiat Currency Risk & John Exter's Golden Triangle Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine October 18, 2002, Jay Taylor

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Exter

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Exter claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Exter before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Exter ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Exter

In research: John Exter appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Exter in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Exter is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1910 births, 2006 deaths, 20th-century American economists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Exter outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Exter in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Exter means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Exter out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Exter in simple terms?

Why does John Exter matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Exter?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Exter.