Author: JanMusschoot

De portefeuille van Marc Coucke

Een jaar geleden zette Marc Coucke zijn vijf favoriete aandelen voor 2017 op Twitter.

Hoe heeft zijn portefeuille gepresteerd in 2017?

Mithra Pharmaceuticals: +16,6%

Smartphoto: +0,6%

Ter Beke: +26,0%

Lotus Bakeries: -15,4%

Fagron: +14,7%

(De getoonde rendementen vergelijken de slotkoers van 22 december 2017 met die van 29 december 2016.)

In de veronderstelling dat je Coucke’s favorieten zou gekocht hebben, dan ben je nu 8,5% rijker (zonder rekening te houden met kosten en dividenden).

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Ik heb een boek over banken en geld geschreven. Lezers vinden het een aanrader!

Bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme

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”

Negative rates: a massive transfer from savers to bank shareholders and governments with little impact on economic growth. (Post in response to Miles Kimball)

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)”

Carrot or stick? The Lonergan-Kimball debate

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”

Books on money and banking: a classification

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”

GDPR: geen ver-van-mijn-bed-show

Heb jij al gehoord van GDPR, de General Data Protection Regulation?

Je leest soms dat data de nieuwe olie is. Technologiebedrijven als Facebook en Google gebruiken onze gegevens als grondstof om er geld mee te verdienen. Maar er zijn heel veel bedrijven en organisaties die persoonlijke zaken van ons weten. Denk maar aan de school van je kinderen, de winkel waar je een klantenkaart hebt, je bank of gewoonweg je werkgever. Continue reading “GDPR: geen ver-van-mijn-bed-show”

Three news stories

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.

  • Articles about the Paradise Papers showed how global elites hide their wealth in tax havens.

I covered previous leaks in the chapter ‘Tax evasion and offshore services’ (p. 100).

Continue reading “Three news stories”

Bitcoiners vinden het warm water uit

Bitcoin is een digitale munt. In tegenstelling tot (supra)nationale valuta zoals de euro, dollar of yen wordt bitcoin niet gecontroleerd door een centrale bank. Iedereen met voldoende computerkracht kan bitcoins bijmaken. Het is echter in het systeem geprogrammeerd dat de uiteindelijke hoeveelheid bitcoins eindig is. Continue reading “Bitcoiners vinden het warm water uit”