Tag Archives: central banks
William White: Why we need to debate exchange rates
William White, formerly head of monetary and economic affairs at the Bank for International Settlements and now chair of a key OECD committee, is one of the few mainstream economists willing and eager to keep the debate about exchange rates systems alive. Most of them want to bury it. In a paper published by the…
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G20 fails to act
People know we haven’t cracked the problem. Anaemic, faltering growth has brought a sense of greater security and well-being only to those in work or those with assets like shares and city property that have floated up on the rising tide of central bank liquidity. Since 2007 vast disparities of wealth have become even…
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Now for the next leg of the “financial crisis”
In effect, this is the money trap in operation – again. Central banks are in a quandary. Unless they return to “normal” levels of interest rates quite soon, the current model of capitalism, which depends on market-determined long-term rates, cannot function. If they do, however, raise interest rates any time soon, with debt leverage still…
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The importance of getting money right
The experience people have of the world, their life chances, what they learn, how they live, where they live, indeed their entire social and personal lives are shaped by monetary relationships, the monetary economy and thus to the world monetary system to an extent completely unprecedented in history. This means getting money wrong will have…
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Globalisation – a poisoned chalice
Against such a backdrop, financial globalisation appears to be a weak force. Yet it exists. It exists in many senses. Nations may raise capital controls – though surprisingly few actually have done. But there are ways round them. People’s desire to connect to the major centres of finance where the opportunities and investment chances…
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A Debate with Allan Meltzer (Part 1)
Professor Allan Meltzer debates international monetary issues and The Money Trap with Robert Pringle On 3/14/2014 12:57 PM, Robert Pringle wrote: Allan, Thinking further about the international monetary system, I now find it difficult to conceive monetary stability being established in one country alone – even if that country is the US. This…
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Allan Meltzer’s plan for world monetary reform
Professor Meltzer’s proposal can be compared with that advocated in “The Money Trap”. Both authors agree on the need for reform of the international monetary system; they agree this must entail discipline on fiscal and monetary policies of member countries and they also agre that any viable scheme should rest on the voluntary consent of…
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Mark Carney tries on his new hats
As predicted in The Money Trap, central banks are in process of ditching inflation targeting as a monetary rule. Needless to say, this is not how they see it. At the Bank of England, Mark Carney thinks he looks fancy wearing the new hats George Osborne has given him. He tried them on…
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Adair Turner (1): Right on the case for radical reform
One person who fully grasps the urgent need for more radical reforms is Lord (Adair) Turner, former head of Britain Financial Services Authority. He also specifies what reforms he feels are needed and makes an eloquent plea for them. These two features set his contributions apart from 90% of writings on the topic. Here I…
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Adair Turner (2): Misguided remedies
Caveat: I should mention to begin with that this critique is based on Lord Turner’s paper on “Escaping the Debt Addiction”; one paper cannot cover every area and he has (I understand) written a soon-to-be-published book that will presumably range more widely. The approach in this paper can be compared with that developed…
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