Opinion/Monetary Policy
A hard test for Britain's euro advocates
ARTICLE - The euro is not just about our economy but our destiny. We should only join the euro if the economic tests are met. That is clear. But if the tests are passed, we go for it." Thus did Tony Blair state his goal and the constraint upon it in his…
Britain will pay the price of exclusion
ARTICLE - Does a single market really require a single currency? Europhiles say yes, Eurosceptics no. Until recently it was not easy to prove who was right. But now we know for sure. Professor Richard Layard puts the case for the UK's entry to the euro.
CentralBankNet Monday Special Feature
SPECIAL FEATURE - In this weeks special feature CentralBankNet looks at the issue of Japan's Non-Performing Loan Problem and the shock decision by the Bank of Japan to start buying shares. On Friday the BOJ published both an outline to its stock purchase…
How fiscal and monetary policy stifle the eurozone
ARTICLE - For Wim Duisenberg yesterday (10 October), attack was the best form of defence. Explaining the European Central Bank's decision to leave interest rates unchanged at 3.25 per cent, despite the dark clouds gathering over Europe's economy and…
David Klein's mysterious adventure
ARTICLE - Several weeks ago, the premier international rating agency Standard & Poor downgraded the credit ratings of Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, and Bank Discount. This action was driven by concern over the quality of loans these banks have issued. In…
GCC asks EU for currency advice
ARTICLE - Six Arab Gulf states have turned to the eurozone for advice in how to successfully start a single currency by 2010.
America is not in danger of deflation
ARTICLE - For most of the postwar era, deflation has been off on the radar screen of economic policymakers in the industrialised world. The United States has not experienced a sustained fall in prices since the Great Depression. Fighting inflation, not…
Anti-deflation drive sparks BOJ fear over autonomy
ARTICLE - The central bank gets the jitters now that finance chief Takenaka takes up its challenge on economy. The Bank of Japan is worried that the government's latest campaign to stamp out deflation and buoy the economy will compromise its autonomy.
CentralBankNet Monday Special Feature
SPECIAL FEATURE - In this weeks special feature CentralBankNet looks at the issue of asset price bubbles. Central bankers have come under some criticism recently for a failure to control such 'irrational exuberance', but hit back that it's not their job…
Japan and US: Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble
ARTICLE - With the American economy still sputtering and the Federal Reserve divided over whether to cut interest rates again, foreboding comparisons between the United States and Japan are gaining a renewed currency.
Greenspan goes on trial for bubble complacency
ARTICLE - Alan Greenspan's reputation now lies in the balance. Which way the balance tips matters not only for him but also for the consensus on how central banks should respond to asset prices.
CentralBankNet Monday Special Feature
SPECIAL FEATURE - Andrew Large became the latest member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to be quizzed by the panel of UK politicians which make up the Treasury Committee on Monday 23 September. In today's Special Report we ask…
GCC central bank & monetary union - How realistic?
ARTICLE - The year is 2010. A young Harvard-educated Saudi, Khalid Al-Ibrahim, has just been named the first president of the new Gulf Central Bank (GCB). He is assisted by a board of directors comprising five other members, mostly former central bankers…
Monetary Hawks and Doves
ARTICLE - In an article from the Ludwig von Mises Institute Mark Thornton, a senior fellow of the Mises Institute, suggests that differences occur in the propensity for Fed governors to be given the tag of either dove or hawk on their FOMC voting habits…
Honour Greenspan and Lady Prudence
ARTICLE - When the Queen knights Alan Greenspan tomorrow at Balmoral it will raise profound questions for the world's other central bankers, reported the London edition of the FT on Wednesday in an article.
Reserve Bank's new target divides economists
ARTICLE - As widely expected, the policy targets agreement between the Government and new Reserve Bank Governor, Dr Alan Bollard, has been amended to require him to keep inflation in a 1 to 3 per cent band "on average over the medium term".
CentralBankNet Monday Special Feature
Each Monday in future CentralBankNet will run a special feature on a subject of topical interest. This week we look at the issues raised by Bill McDonough's recent speech deploring the excesses of US executive pay and ask: Is it the job of a central…
The IMF and Ukraine: What Really Happened
ARTICLE - A Commentary by Lorenzo Figliuoli and Bogdan Lissovolik, IMF Resident Representatives in Ukraine, Zerkalo Nedeli, 31 August. Recently the Zerkalo Nedeli newspaper has published a number of articles disparaging of the role of the International…
Deputy dogged by lack of job definition at B of E
ARTICLE - To be Deputy Governor of the Bank of England is a hazardous occupation, reported the Daily Telegraph on Friday. The first, Michael Godfrey, went to the wars and lost his head to a cannon-ball apparently.
Greenspan keeps his nerve
ARTICLE - More mixed economic data appear to support Alan Greenspan's cautious decision not to cut interest rates any further for the time being, reports the Economist magazine on Friday. But this week the Fed admitted that stockmarket jitters have…
How economics came to rival religious faith
ARTICLE - Is economics a religion? This question is posed by Samuel Brittan in the Financial Times on Thursday.
Liberalising our exchange controls
ARTICLE - At the recently-held public/private sector consultation on economic and related issues, Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, Dr. Marion Williams presented a paper on Barbados' response to the liberalisation of trade in financial services.
It's time to create the 'amero'
ARTICLE - In an article in the Canadian National Post on Friday Herbert Grubel introduces the idea of the 'amero' a single currency between Canada the USA and possibly Mexico along the same lines as the euro. He also tries to unravel some apparent…