News
SEC chief economist quits for private sector
Securities and Exchange Commission head economist James Overdahl will start as deputy head of a Washington consultancy at the end of March
China to keep up T-bill purchases; cautious on gold
State Administration of Foreign Exchange chief Yi Gang says the country will not rely excessively on gold, adds that political relations with US will not affect Chinese treasury holdings
US flip flops on cutting Fed’s oversight role
Senate committee is set to take all but the 23 biggest banks out of Fed’s regulatory ambit, diluted proposal will see Fed hang on to more of its responsibilities than reform bill initially said
Weber signals ECB could relax debt rules
Comments come after Austrian governor deemed power of rating agencies unacceptable; paves way for ECB to accept Greek debt even if downgraded
Fund economist: Lost Decade shows need for higher inflation targets
IMF economist Daniel Leigh points to evidence from Japan’s Lost Decade that shows hiking targets would have shorn output losses
ECB names new statistics head
European Central Bank says Aurel Schubert of the Austrian central bank will be the new chief of its statistics directorate
China to drop dollar peg “sooner or later”: Zhou
Chinese central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan hints the country will soon remove the dollar peg on its currency, analysts see a slow and steady revaluation rather than large one-off move
Noyer to chair BIS board
Banque de France governor succeeds Guillermo Ortiz as chairman of Bank for International Settlements’ board
Brussels and Paris push for European monetary fund
Finance ministries of France and Germany begin devising proposals for Europe’s own Fund, body would be geared at removing bailout security net as well as providing help to euro countries
Gudmundsson confident of Icesave deal despite country’s ‘no’ vote
Icelandic central bank governor Már Gudmundsson says a resolution will be reached with British and Dutch governments soon despite massive wave of public opposition to the plan
Volcker lambasts higher inflation targets
Former Fed chairman Paul Volcker calls the suggestion that inflation targets should be raised to about 4% “nonsense”; points to the difficulties of the 1980s
Canada to switch to polymer
Bank of Canada to issue plastic notes in 2011
Hildebrand, Weber condemn calls for higher inflation targets
Swiss and German central bank heads label IMF chief economist’s argument “seriously flawed”; deem timing “highly unfortunate”
Bank begins consultation on note circulation
Bank of England in talks with commercial cash industry on proposal to better distribute lowest denomination note
ECB surplus drops more than 16%
European Central Bank reports a €2.218 billion surplus, and a €2.25 billion profit, pinning fall in interest income to low rates on dollar assets
Norway’s wealth fund smashes profit record
Norway’s Government Pension Fund–Global sees a 25.6% return on its investments for 2009, trumping the benchmark portfolio by more than four percentage points
Swiss stabfund losses wipe out UBS equity
Revaluation wipes more than $5.6 billion off the value of SNB’s toxic-asset portfolio
We won’t ban prop trading: British Lord
British business secretary Peter Mandelson says Volcker rule is “too difficult” even as Washington works to turn it into law
Argentine Senate set to reject governor
Central bank set to be leaderless again after committee vote against Fernández ally
Norges Bank sees $1.28 billion loss
Norwegian central bank says deficit the result of the appreciation of its currency; cannot transfer funds to the country’s Treasury as a result
Malaysia hikes as recession ends in emerging Asia
Bank Negara Malaysia raises its key rate by a quarter percentage point, citing stronger than forecast growth results in emerging Asia
Lawmakers clash over Fed role in consumer protection
Senior Democrats infuriated over possible revision to regulatory reform bill that would keep consumer protection under the Fed, against original promise
Austria’s Nowotny: power of rating agencies unacceptable
National Bank of Austria’s Ewald Nowotny says agencies’ role in fate of Greece too great
Fed’s Fisher: break up the big banks
Dallas Federal Reserve’s president gets tough on those deemed too big to fail