Opinion

The fight over Venezuela's central bank profits

Last weekend Venezuela's President Chavez once again attacked the central bank over the amount of "foreign exchange profits" it should turn over to the government. With Chavez threatening to go to the Supreme Court on the issue, this article suggests the…

Central bankers need to learn new tricks

This article speculates as to whether central bankers play five-a-side football in policy meetings. Or at least, there is no point in them doing anything else, it says. With complete credibility, they really don't have to do very much at all. But…

When currency empires fall

Is the dollar doomed as the world's reserve currency? CentralBankNet caught up with Professor Avinash Persaud at a lecture on Thursday 9 October as he set out his dramatic vision of how global currency markets might evolve over the course of the 21st…

What's missing at Asian central banks? Credibility

This article argues that Asia lacks a central banker with the clout enjoyed by the Federal Reserve chairman or the ECB president. This lack of credibility exists because of their aggressive manipulation of currency rates, their spotty histories of…

Rising tide of computer crime

UK banks have lost £4.5m to internet fraud in the last year. The majority of this fraud is thought to be carried out by organized criminal gangs in Eastern Europe. CentralBankNet reports on this growing phenomenon.

Greenspan: The man who does the opposite

This article looks at what it says is the recurring pattern in Alan Greenspan's life of saying the opposite of what he is thinking/doing. Giving the example of his obscure but now famous essay, "Gold and Economic Freedom" published in 1966 it asks why he…

IMF urges China to float yuan now

IMF managing director Rodrigo de Rato said on Wednesday 29 September that it would be to China's advantage to uncouple the yuan from the dollar. This article looks at the chances of China making some concession on the currency question at Friday's G7…

Bank of Canada Working Paper on Taylor Rules

In this Working Paper from the Bank of Canada the authors compute welfare-maximizing Taylor rules in a dynamic general-equilibrium model of a small open economy. They find that the welfare gains from moving to the optimal Taylor rule are larger than…

Is the euro good for Europe?

The euro has existed as a currency for over five years now, and notes and coins have been in circulation for over two. This article asks whether the coin of the realm in 12 European countries has accomplished its goals.

After Alan Greenspan, who?

This article looks at some of the favourites to replace Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve when he steps down. Because of the Fed chairman's enormous influence on the U.S. economy and global financial markets, the selection will be among…

Measuring financial stability

Following the IMF's latest global financial stability review, released on Wednesday, one might expect central bankers to be relaxing. The Fund could see few threats on the horizon. In fact, central bank crisis watchers have never been busier. Mostly they…

Korea's possible central bank deficit

The Bank of Korea is highly likely to register a deficit this year for the first time in a decade, according to this article. The Ministry of Finance should refrain from meddling too much in the market and let the central bank do its job of stabilising…

Find your way around Basel II with FSI Connect

Banking supervisors around the world are gearing up to implement the new capital accord Basel II. FSI Connect, a web-based study and tutoring programme has been designed specifically for banking supervisors by experts at the BIS. Courses focus on risk…

Is India meddling with central bank's autonomy?

India's Trade minister has recently said "We don't want interest rates to harden". This article questions the effect of such "official" comments on the RBI's autonomy and says there's now the risk of monetary policy becoming a political football in India.

Bank to take market view

Hidden within the Bank of England's most recent inflation report is a significant tweaking of the Bank's inflation targeting stance. CentralBankNet reports on the Bank's adoption of market forecasts of interest rates for some of its projections.

Global currency answer to unstable world economy

This article asks whether floating exchange rates have proved to be the ideal replacement for the unsustainable adjustable exchange-rate pegs of the Bretton Woods monetary regime. If the global market economy is to thrive in the decades ahead, a global…

Are there too many yes men on the MPC?

This article reports that the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee has remained significantly more consensual than their predecessors, with an average "maverick rating" of just under three compared with nearly five among previous members. This…

Bulwarks against chaos

The sixtieth anniversary of the Bretton Woods agreement has prompted comment in the media and provided a peg for a number of conferences. At least two of these were held last month in beautiful surroundings in Italy. The Editor of Central Banking journal…

Central bank coxswain can't fully trust the crew

The Bank of England sees its role as a manager of other people's behaviour, this article says. A bit like the coxswain in a rowing race, the Bank both barks out orders and has a well-trained hand on the tiller. Central bankers, inevitably, like to think…

IRAQ'S NEW CENTRAL BANK

In April 2003 the central bank of Iraq was reduced to rubble. Its offices were ransacked, its records burnt, its vaults partly flooded (it sits on the banks of the Tigris), and its governor had fled. One of Saddam Hussain's sons had taken about $1…

Common West African central bank by July 2005

A common central bank for the five West African countries, Nigeria, Guinea, Ghana, Sierra Leone and The Gambia will have begun operations by July 2005, this article says. To be officially known as the West Africa Central Bank (WACB) the policy-guiding…

What's with Greenspan's hawkish talk?

This article says Alan Greenspan's recent more hawkish comments in testimony to Congress on July 20-21 have a lot to do with whom Greenspan was speaking for and to whom he was speaking. Mainly, his stern words about guarding against inflation reflect his…

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