Opinion
Comment: Bank of Italy reforms
As pressure mounts on the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, to take definitive action in the ongoing saga surrounding the position of Bank of Italy governor, Antonio Fazio, market analysts will also have one eye on some of the more fundamental…
Greenspan the 'risk manager'
The recent Jackson Hole conference provided another peek into the mind of a central banker who has kept Wall Street guessing for two decades, this article writes. The essence of Greenspan's approach, it says, is to anticipate and accommodate possible…
Comment: Oil markets - The need to look deeper
Crude oil futures last week shot above the $70 per barrel in the wake of hurricane Katrina's devastation of the American south coast.
Oil price rise leads to C-word use in Asia
This article published onb Friday 2 September says that when respected and sober Asian economists start using the word 'crisis' in reference to surging oil prices it's time to take them seriously.
Comment: Risks in housing finance
Personal debt levels in the UK and USA are at record highs, while savings rates have fallen to record lows. As concerns grow over the risks posed to financial stability and economic performance, central banks and regulators are having to consider how…
Fed after Greenspan will need skillful handler
An article published on Wednesday 31 August asks whether the next Fed chairman can possibly be as skillful as Alan Greenspan has been in using a discretionary approach to monetary policy.
Comment: UK's 50-year indexed gilt
The UK will combine two growing trends in sovereign debt issuance when it issues the world's first 50-year index-linked gilt in November.
Greenspan's legacy - 'Greatest central banker'
This article published Monday looks at a paper presented at the recent conference held by the Kansas Fed in Jackson Hole. Although the paper criticises that "much of the secret of Greenspan's success remains a secret" - according to the article this is…
Comment: How to account for gold?
Opinions on whether gold is a good investment for central banks vary, but what is beyond dispute is that the different methods of accounting for gold in their balance sheets and income statements is a source of endless confusion.
Money separates European Central Bank from Fed
According to this article published on Tuesday 30 August, in the old days, bond traders had a singular, stock response to a surge in oil prices and the onset of natural disasters, such as hurricanes: Sell Treasuries.
Comment: Playing Yuan Politics (31 Aug)
How significant is last month's announcement by the Chinese monetary authorities that it is to drop the dollar peg for the yuan in favour of a basket of currencies?
Comment: Summer roundup
For subscribers returning to their offices after the summer break - and for anybody wishing to catch breath before the autumn season - here is a check list of topics that have bubbled to the surface recently and are likely to remain of concern to central…
Comment: Central banks scrutinize staff costs
How do central banks compare on staff costs? Central Banking Publications has compiled some figures for a group of countries (mainly OECD) using central banks' annual reports.
Comment: The Benefits of Joining the EMU
What is the gain for new European Union member states of joining the Euro currency area so soon? This is the question asked by Federico Ravenna in a recent ECB working paper*. The author argues that the decision to become part of the monetary union is…
Europe's unstable currency union?
John Nugee writes on how a "one size fits all" interest rate policy in the Eurozone can exacerbate divergence between economies.
Comment: A controversial Central Banking feature
About two weeks after its publication, the current issue of Central Banking has suddenly been receiving wall-to-wall coverage in some sections of the UK media. But what was intended as a sober, objective and balanced appraisal of some of the problems of…
Basel II may feed volatility
Despite recognising that the new Basel accord is "widely viewed as a much needed effort to deal with the shortcoming of the current system", a recent working paper by the Bank of England (BoE) raises new concerns about how the accord may exacerbate…
Pricking a housing bubble, Australian style
Reserve Bank of Australia governor Ian Macfarlane has declared victory in the fight to deflate one of the world's most obvious housing bubbles, according to this article published on Wednesday 17 August. In fact, he is so confident he has succeeded that…
ECB behind BoE, Fed on clarity; must reveal more
This article published on Thursday 18 August reveals the results of a poll of economists and academics who were asked to compare the ECB with the Bank of England, U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan for clarity of communication.
Comment: Governments eye foreign reserves
Two dimensions of official sector reserves receive a lot of attention in the press, in policy circles and from market analysts: foreign reserves held by central banks and public pension funds.
Single currency in SADC remains elusive
Dreams of a regional central bank are far from fruition for the countries of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), according to this article published Tuesday 16 August.
In search of King's defence
Two articles published Thursday reflected on the Bank of England's last MPC meeting which saw the governor outvoted for the first time. One says the UK's "boring" monetary policy just got a whole lot more interesting, noting that heavyweight Charlie Bean…
Comment: Views on King's gambit
Here is a roundup comments on the Bank of England's publication of the minutes of the latest MPC meeting, which revealed that, for the first time in the committee's history, the governor voted with the minority (see yesterday's CentralBankNet).
Oil-market frenzy and the Fed
This editorial by The Washington Times, published on Tuesday 16 August, says the job of the Federal Reserve has become far more complicated today. Today, following years in which international financial markets have been increasingly integrated, global…