Feature
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
Cyprus and Malta brace for the euro
With just two months to go before both island economies join the euro, Justin Keay compares Malta’s smooth preparations with the more problematic case of Cyprus.
Japan’s normalisation strategy in jeopardy
Hisashi Harui suggests that the Bank of Japan is still unable to get its message across clearly to the markets
Why the Bank of Japan needs to regain trust
Unless the Bank of Japan urgently corrects a number of policy flaws, the central bank law could become a political football, Robert Feldman suggests
The numbers game
New legislation will have a profound impact on the compilation of official statistics in Britain. Jill Leyland considers the possible impact on the Bank of England
New Zealand breaks with the Brash era
Going for growth will come back to haunt the Reserve Bank and its governor, writes Rodney Dickens