Opinion/Central Banks
Complexity will not cut banks' risk
LETTER - Letter published in the Financial Times, UK edition, 21 October.
Estonia's case for euro membership
LETTER - Letter published in the Financial Times, UK edition, 21 October.
BOJ should create inflation to fight deflation
INTERVIEW - The best way to fight deflation is to create inflation, according to Kikuo Iwata, professor at Gakushuin University, who suggests the Bank of Japan set an inflation target of 1 to 3 percent for the next 12 months.
Japan already has its very own Greenspan
ARTICLE - "Japan needs an Alan Greenspan," some Japanese intellectuals recently demanded, and then went on to debate who the nation's own Greenspan might be. Given the country's dire economic straits, it is understandable that Japanese eyes are being…
Balcerowicz: Maastricht convergence opportunity
INTERVIEW - Summary of an interview with Leszek Balcerowicz, governor of the National Bank of Poland and chief of its Monetary Policy Council. The interview was published in a recent issue of Gazeta Wyborcza.
US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill - Time to go?
ARTICLE - Just what a fragile global economy doesn't need is a loose cannon as a US Treasury Secretary. Yet after a succession of gaffes that have sunk markets and offended presidents, Paul O'Neill remains unrepentant. Now is the time for him to resign…
Ignore the ghost of deflation past
ARTICLE - Financial market crystal ball gazers are focusing on the danger of a double-dip world recession.
Economists get the idea
ARTICLE - Two Nobel prizewinners have worked out why people do not always think rationally. John is interested in politics, he likes to participate in debates and is eager to appear in the media. Is John a salesman or is he a member of parliament?
Setting the Record Straight: By Kenneth Rogoff
LETTER - Letter from Kenneth Rogoff, Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department, International Monetary Fund. Submitted to Le Monde but not published, 4 October 2002.
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.