Central Banks
Chief Republican votes against Bernanke
Leading Republican on Senate Banking Committee Richard Shelby says Fed abused trust and confidence
Jordan cuts by half a point
Central Bank of Jordan knocks 50 basis points off key rate as deflation strikes
Credit shocks: evidence from corporate spreads and defaults
Dallas Federal Reserve paper looks to uncover the nature of credit-market shocks
Economists judge Carstens worthy successor
Carstens up to the job of heading the Bank of Mexico but concern exists over his replacement as finance minister
ECB to start building new HQ in spring
European Central Bank to finally begin construction after two-year delay
Commonwealth Secretariat releases guide to aid literacy
Commonwealth Secretariat publishes teachers’ resource to promote financial literacy; efforts part of campaign launched by Central Bank of Trinidad & Tobago to promote better financial education
BoJ partly to blame for lost decade: CEPR paper
CEPR looks at the contribution of the stock of money to the macroeconomic outcomes of the 1990s http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=7608
BoE’s Miles calls for smaller banking sector
Bank of England’s David Miles says the enormous size of the banking sector is no longer justified
Bank of Finland’s Huhtala on reserve management post-crisis
Heli Huhtala, the head of investments in the Banking Operations Department at the Bank of Finland, discusses how the crisis will change the thinking on central banks’ reserve-management strategies
Eurozone may need to rethink strategy on Greece
Brussels and the European Central Bank have underestimated the potential for contagion from Athens’s fiscal woes, argues Marco Annunziata, the chief economist at UniCredit
HKMA: Quarterly Bulletin (December 2009)
Bulletin article says exposures to structured products remains insignificant
Fed reiterates plans for February exit
Federal Open Market Committee and governors expect to exit most crisis-fighting facilities early next year; committee keeps “extended period” pledge
Britain to abolish cheque clearing in 2018
Payments overseer says plans contingent on 2016 review demonstrating alternatives exist
Czechs surprise with rate cut
Czech National Bank opts to shave a quarter point off key rate
Norway hikes for second time
Norges Bank raises key rate to 1.75% citing pick-up in economic activity
Denmark gets new assistant governor
Head of economics at National Bank of Denmark promoted
Oil-price forecasts inaccurate
Bundesbank looks at the expectation-formation process of forecasters in the crude oil market
East Asia will take its cue from Fed: Indonesia deputy
Budi Mulya, the deputy governor of Bank Indonesia, says it is crucial the Fed err on the side of caution in withdrawing accommodative measures; East Asia-Pacific region will watch it closely
Austria nationalises failing lender
Austrian government takes over Hypo Group Alpe Adria from state of Bavaria as central bank financial stability report shows tier 1 capital ratios in the sector are set to drop
Mexico shrugs off S&P downgrade
Peso down marginally and Mexican stocks up despite second downgrade in less than a fortnight
Cutting interest rates the best solution: ECB paper
A European Central Bank working paper argues that interest rate cuts and controlled inflation help adverse financial conditions, while simplistic interpretation of Taylor rule does not