Opinion
No 'complacency' about debt levels
FEATURE - Letter published in the Financial Times, 3 May, from Dr Sushil Wadhwani, Monetary Policy Committee, Bank of England.
None so deaf - A central banker hit below the belt
FEATURE - When the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, is stuck in an awkward political corner she has taken to using a cheap rhetorical trick. She has borrowed it from Rob Muldoon. Unable to find anything substantive to say, she resorts to…
Olson isn't saying what banks want to hear
FEATURE - Bankers' hopes were high in December when Mark W. Olson was sworn in as a member of the Federal Reserve Board but the American Banker reports, 1 May, that Mr Olson has provided the banking industry with nothing but tough love.
Debating and preparing for the Payments Future
FEATURE - In a rare set of predictions on how the U.S. payments system's transaction mix will evolve, The Nilson Report in the American Banker says that in about 10 years debit cards will overtake credit cards, cash will remain king, and paper checks…
Interview with Russian central bank First Deputy
FEATURE - Interview with central bank first deputy chairman Oleg Vyugin with Vesti RTR News Program, 23 April.
ECB stands in contrast to Bank of England
FEATURE - Tuesday's London edition FT reports on the difficulties central banks can face in identifying and maintaining ideal inflation targets.
Gold's backers want to polish up its image
FEATURE - It isn't just the war against terrorism, or the growing violence in the Middle East. It isn't just increased Japanese demand or the Enron scandal's effect on the equity markets. Rather, gold's 10% rally this year, to a recent two-year high of…
Retreating to the sanctuary of gold
FEATURE - 'Gold is back,' declared a leading news agency this week in an analysis into why the yellow metal has pushed resolutely back above US$300 an ounce for the first time in two years, and why investor interest is at its highest in almost 20 years.
An overview of the Federal Reserve System
FEATURE - In an interesting article Hoover's Company Profiles look at the history of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve Act followed the panic which ensued after the failure of New York's Knickerbocker Trust Company in 1907. J. P. Morgan strong…
More cogitating about world 'after Alan'
FEATURE - As various people remind us on an increasingly frequent basis, it's not too early to be speculating about the Greenspan succession question.
Central banks and asset inflation
FEATURE - A modern central bank needs to watch asset prices as well as traditional inflation.
Recent comments by Bank of England MPC members
Feature - Reflection on recent comment from the nine members of the monetary policy committee of the Bank of England, 19 April.
Back from a King's vault, the lone double eagle
FEATURE - It is a $20 gold piece from 1933 that was ordered destroyed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Stolen from the United States Mint, it was exported for a king after the government committed the bumble of all bumbles, was contested in an…
The Recession that Almost Was
FEATURE - A Commentary by Kenneth Rogoff, Economic Counsellor and Director, Research Department, International Monetary Fund, 5 April.
FX traders to kiss goodbye to settlement risk
FEATURE - Currency traders, more aware of the potential for disruption in the financial system after September 11, should draw comfort from a long-awaited settlement system linked to central banks that is due to go live this year.
Japan lawmaker says BOJ chief not worth his salt
FEATURE - Is a central bank governor who has been unable to halt a three-year decline in prices or prevent the longest recession in decades worth his salt - particularly when his paycheck is 38.43 million yen ($293,000) a year?
Changing the guard on the Bank of England's MPC
FEATURE - The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee is about to embark on its most radical shake-up since it was set up five years ago. Five of its nine members - including the Governor and his two deputies - will either be replaced or have their…
Thin skin - Don't mess with Buba
FEATURE - The upcoming German elections appear to have put German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in a foul and vindictive mood. Some months ago, there was the chancellor's surprisingly undiplomatic "How Dare You" response to Brussels' warning that Germany…
Interview with a regulator
FEATURE - Interview with Jeremy Cox, Supervisor of Insurance, Bermuda Monetary Authority. Originally published in the Asia Insurance Review on Monday.
When an ATM is an alien concept
FEATURE - It is only an ATM (automatic teller machine), but it might as well be an alien spacecraft, crash landed in central Vientiane. People do not know what to make of it - which is understandable when you consider that this is the first ATM in Laos.
Brazil's central bank - a question of independence
FEATURE - Brazil's central bank president, Arminio Fraga, may appear the only sure thing in Brasilia these days as election fever grips the capital of South America's number one economy. But the question to be asked is, for how long?
Bank's inner circle and its Outer Mongolia
FEATURE - The Bank of England is the City's Kremlin. From time to time figures appear on the balcony above its windowless walls, and the watchers must try to calculate whose stock is up and who has been posted to Outer Mongolia. There is no doubt that…
Greenspan's heir apparent stays cryptic
FEATURE - Judging by his refusal to provide a direct answer to a straightforward question, John Taylor is on track to become the next chairman of the US Federal Reserve writes Stephen Romei in The Australian on Monday.
Wim's wait
FEATURE - The European Central Bank is extending its "wait and see" policy from interest rates to the equally delicate matter of high-level appointments, reported Friday's FT in London.