Feature
Legislative barriers and Northern Rock
Mervyn King’s assertion that he was “hemmed in” by legislation during the run on Northern Rock has some merits, argues Charles Proctor
Sovereign wealth meets poverty in China
Matt Sekerke questions Chinese officials’ captivation with the glamour of international financial markets
A liability-based approach to sovereign wealth
Andrew Rozanov suggests that focussing on the liability profile of sovereign wealth funds is a useful way to understand their objectives and likely behaviour
The rising financial power of emerging markets
Jacques de Larosière puts the rising financial power of emerging markets in perspective and considers the implications for the international monetary system
Into the limelight
Malan Rietveld looks at the dramatic penetration into the heart of the Western financial system by sovereign investors from emerging markets in recent months
Activity-based costing: a case study
José Clovis Batista Dattoli and Henrique Flávio Rodrigues da Silveira review the Brazilian central bank’s adaptation of a textbook costing system.
China’s monetary mandarins
The ever-increasing importance of China’s economic policymakers has led to intense scrutiny of the people behind the headlines. Andrew Peaple profiles the most important players
Why do central banks make losses?
Financial losses can be very damaging to the reputation and independence of a central bank. Franziska Schobert examines why losses occur.
Lessons of Northern Rock
British lawmakers are divided over how to fix a broken regulatory framework
Learning from the private sector
Central banks have lagged behind the commercial banks improving financial accountability, argues Jeremy Foster and Stephen Anderson.
Balancing transparency and discretion
Central banks face unique challenges in meeting demands for financial transparency. Clifford Smout suggests how a better understanding of their performance can be enabled.
News analysis: Forced into action
Claire Jones, the editor of Central Bank News, analyses how uncertainty threatened to cripple the interbank market and called for a unique response from the central banks
Using financial statements proactively
Kenneth Sullivan identifies practical steps central banks can take to resolve problems with existing accounting frameworks and improve financial accountability
Bollard confounds his critics
Mansoor Mohi-uddin suggests the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s controversial intervention in the foreign exchange market earlier this year has paid off
Why policy should take account of asset prices
One lesson of the current crisis is that monetary policy should respond to asset prices, whether the movement is up or down and regardless of its cause, argues Tim Young
Risky business
Avinash Persaud argues that the crisis was largely caused by the risk-transfer models championed by the investment banks, credit rating agencies and regulators
Information crunch: a 21st century crisis
Central banks have in general conducted themselves well in the current crisis, but should have acted earlier. Now they have to help overcome the prevailing “information crunch”, says Marco Annunziata
The Federal Reserve and the crisis of 2007
Stephen G. Cecchetti reviews the unfolding of the recent credit market turmoil and the Federal Reserve’s response to it. The Fed, he suggests, got it right
Prospects for an inflation-targeting Fed
John H. Wood argues that legislative hurdles make a move to inflation targeting by the Fed unlikely. But, he says, the issue is a red herring
The Fed in the international central banking community
The Volcker Fed provided the lead for an international consensus in favour of low and stable inflation. But the institutional arrangement for exchange rate policy remains the Achilles heel of the current consensus, argues Marvin Goodfriend.
The emerging Bernanke Fed
Central bankers earn their keep in times of crisis, and the recent credit turmoil has revealed much about how the emerging Bernanke Fed operates when it matters most, argues assistant editor Malan Rietveld
Clipping central bankers’ wings
Willem Buiter argues that central banks should “stick to their knitting” and become minimalist monetary authorities
Do we get more out of theory than we put in?
John B. Taylor assesses the impact of theoretical breakthroughs on monetary policymaking, and evaluates the results