This is a review of a book written over 50 years ago by a central banker.
Based on that introduction, even most finance geeks will probably think “boring!” or “irrelevant!”. Until you learn it has Nazis, hyperinflation and the Nuremberg trials in it. And those are not even the interesting parts. Continue reading “The Magic of Money”
The New Yorker published a longread (also available in audio) about the increasing power of China. In his article Making China Great Again, Evan Osnos discusses a range of topics, from international relations and trade to artificial intelligence.
Two parts that I found particularly interesting: Continue reading “The rise of China”
The end of the year is a time for retrospection.
These were the five most read1 posts on this blog: Continue reading “Blog highlights 2017”
Bitcoin has been called a Ponzi scheme. Especially now that unwitting speculators are buying the cryptocurrency. They are attracted by the spectacularly rising price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2017.
In The Problem with Calling Bitcoin a “Ponzi Scheme”, Preston Byrne argues that this is not correct. Continue reading “Bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme”
This post explores the consequences of deeply negative interest rates set by the ECB, as proposed by professor Miles Kimball. It’s a shorter version of my previous post, plus an estimation of the economic stimulus of the proposal. Continue reading “Negative rates: a massive transfer from savers to bank shareholders and governments with little impact on economic growth. (Post in response to Miles Kimball)”
Update 1, 12/12/2017: Prof. Kimball replied on Twitter. I have added his remarks just before the discussion section.
Update 2, 12/12/2017: See my follow-up post with more details on the distributional and stimulative effects of deeply negative ECB rates.
Central banks around the developed world have been struggling to meet their inflation targets. Economists are divided on what the Fed, the ECB or the Bank of Japan should do.
Massive amounts of quantitative easing have proven to be ineffective at boosting inflation. Some economists have proposed that central banks raise inflation expectations.
At the 5th Bruegel – Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University conference1, Eric Lonergan and professor Miles Kimball advocated their preferred solutions: helicopter money and deep negative interest rates, respectively. Continue reading “Carrot or stick? The Lonergan-Kimball debate”
Let’s say you want to read a book about money and banking. What options do you have?
As it turns out, quite a few. Here’s my classification of the literature into six broad themes. The discussion is limited to books that deal with banking and the monetary system. I don’t cover the popular genre of personal finance books that tell the reader how to invest or how to minimize taxes. The books mentioned in this post are illustrations of categories. They should not be interpreted as endorsements. Continue reading “Books on money and banking: a classification”
I wrote Bankers are people, too to help non-economists put the financial news into perspective.
Three recent news stories were no surprise to readers of my book.
I covered previous leaks in the chapter ‘Tax evasion and offshore services’ (p. 100).
This is the paper I submitted to the Central Banking and Green Finance workshop organized by the Council on Economic Policies (CEP) and De Nederlandsche Bank. I wrote it to stimulate a discussion about how central banks can contribute to the fight against climate change. The text does not necessarily reflect my personal opinion. Continue reading “Green infrastructure bonds with macro strings attached: How the ECB could fulfill its mandate by fighting climate change”
Several readers have asked me why I called my book Bankers are people, too: How finance works
It sure wasn’t the working title, which was Money, Banks, and Power. The working title reflected the role of politics and regulation in real-life banking. A realistic description of the financial sector cannot neglect the world outside banks. Continue reading ““Bankers are people, too”: why that title?”
