Central Banking
Fed to hire ex-Enron lobbyist?
The Federal Reserve is set to hire a former Enron lobbyist to defend itself against Congressional charges of opacity, it was reported on Friday.
NY Fed's Dudley plays down balance-sheet fears
William Dudley, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, has attempted to soothe fears that the expansion of the Fed's balance sheet could stoke inflation.
Cuba gets first new governor in 14 years
Ernesto Medina, the head of one of Cuba's major banks, has replaced Francisco Soberon as governor of the central bank.
Resource utilisation a policy factor for Riksbank
Monetary policy should take into account not only the total amount of spare capacity in the economy, but also its composition, said Svante berg, the first deputy governor of the Riksbank.
Price-level targeting better than IT
Moving to price-level targeting from inflation targeting is welfare enhancing when imperfect credibility is short-lived, a new paper from the Bank of Canada posits.
Serbia's Jelasic: microfinance struggling
The microfinance sector has been hit hard by the crisis, said Radovan Jelasic, the governor of the National Bank of Serbia.
Institutions matter in financial development
The gap in financial development between the countries of the CFA franc zone and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa can be explained by differences in institutional quality, new research from the International Monetary Fund reveals.
CEE central banks' reaction mixed on Latvia
The views of officials from other Central and Eastern European central banks on this week's escalation of Latvia's currency crisis are mixed.
Denmark urges banks to accept government offer
The National Bank of Denmark said on Thursday that almost half of its largest banks could go bust if they do not sign up to a government-funded initiative.
Iceland dismisses IMF advice and cuts
The Central Bank of Iceland's rate-setting board cut its key rate by a percentage point on Thursday despite the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week supporting a "firm" monetary stance.
Kosovo joins World Bank
Kosovo on Thursday was granted membership of the World Bank after becoming the International Monetary Fund's 186th member in May.
NY Fed's Dudley on the future of securitisation
A smaller, more homogeneous and independent securitisation market is likely to emerge from the crisis, William Dudley, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, said on Thursday.
ECB's Trichet: prepare for rebalancing world
The world has to prepare for a very profound structural rebalancing of world output during the next years, said Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank.
Consumption related to the state of the economy
Consumption is proportional to a target wealth with the marginal propensity to consume depending on the state of the macroeconomy, new research from the St Louis Federal Reserve reveals.
No to EU, yes to supervision role for BoE
The idea of a greater role for European Union regulation of United Kingdom's financial services must be resisted, said Sir Martin Jacomb, a former external director of the Bank of England, in a new report from the Centre for Policy Studies, a think tank.
Reserve Bank of Tonga - Annual Report 2007/08
The Tongan economy has returned to modest growth during 2007/08 following several large shocks to the economy in previous years, says Siosi Mafi, the governor of the National Reserve Bank of Tonga, in the central bank's latest Annual Report.
Latvia under intensified devaluation pressure
The Bank of Latvia on Thursday issued a strongly-worded statement defending the lats after the Baltic state's currency crisis intensified on Wednesday following a failed government auction.
New Nigerian governor criticises Soludo
Lamido Sanusi, confirmed as the new governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday, said he disagreed with his predecessor's plans to re-denominate the naira made back in 2007.
Bernanke announces Fed communication enhancements
In a bid to ease lawmakers' concerns over transparency, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, has said that the central bank will publish several new reports on its lending.
Latvia PM dismisses devaluation advice
Latvia's prime minister has parried claims by a former governor of the Riksbank that the lats will need to be devalued in the near future.
Bank losses not as bad as 1990s, says Riksbank
The Riksbank has predicted a sharp, but manageable, rise in Swedish banks' loan losses, largely on the back of defaults by businesses in the Nordic region and the Baltic States.
Germany's Merkel attacks central banks
Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, on Tuesday criticised the unconventional measures taken by central banks around the globe and called on them to revert to sane and independent monetary policy.
RBA's Debelle: leaning against the wind useless
There is not much to be achieved by leaning against the wind, said Guy Debelle, the assistant governor for financial markets at the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Fed's governance structure should be revisited
The conventional model of central bank independence may need to be revisited given the unprecedented expansion of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, new research from the International Monetary Fund notes.