Ben Bernanke
US Senate reappoints Powell as Fed chair
Appointment comes as Powell’s approval rating in polls falls to lowest point in his career
Lifetime achievement: Stanley Fischer
Fischer has had a profound impact on monetary economics and central banking during his prolific career
US may face ‘jobless recovery’ despite huge stimulus
Economists warn fiscal stimulus has been poorly targeted; Ben Bernanke defends Fed policy
BoE’s Bailey explores future of balance sheet policy
Question of whether QE is “state contingent” could impact how it is deployed through the cycle
Lessons from the Riksbank’s negative rates experiment
Sweden is the only nation to have implemented negative rates and then returned them to ‘normal’ territory. What can central bankers learn from the Swedish experience?
Book notes: The great demographic reversal, by Charles Goodhart and Manoj Pradhan
An important book, predicting that powerful demographic forces will upend conventional thinking on macroeconomics and policy
Influential Fed economist Thomas Laubach dies
Current and former Fed officials pay tribute to the US central bank’s German influencer, who died on September 2
Fed feeling its way with new inflation framework
Average inflation targeting is broadly dovish, and could see rates stay lower for even longer
James Bullard on the Fed’s policy review, FSOC and forecasting jobs data
St Louis Fed president discusses his support for average inflation targeting, his concerns about US Treasuries market function, non-bank regulatory weakness and negative rates, as well as the unexpected success in using Homebase data to predict highly…
Book notes: The menace of fiscal QE, by George Selgin
Much of this book is even more relevant, thought-provoking and important following Covid-19
Bernanke and Yellen join call for new fiscal stimulus in US
Former Fed chairs among 148 economists warning of “disastrous” effects if Congress fails to act
Central banking enters a new era
Central banks face a delicate balancing act to preserve their reputations as they evolve into ‘buyers of last resort’ and some of their actions appear functionally equivalent to ‘monetary financing’
Fed set to adopt ‘elements’ of price-level targeting
Covid-19 could act as a catalyst for a Janet Yellen-supported Fed move to adopt elements of price-level targeting. But questions remain about the timing of such a move
El-Erian on Covid-19 policy risks, ‘zombie’ markets and central bank capture
Former Pimco chief says Fed move into high yield is a step too far, new rules needed on leverage and false liquidity, and narrow window emerges for central banks to shed some of their policy load
Should the Fed be next to implement yield curve control?
The Reserve Bank of Australia is now the second G20 central bank trying to control longer-term interest rates. Could the Fed be next?
US banks increase discount window borrowing
Federal Reserve “encouraged by the notable increase” in use of the backstop facility
Macroeconomics is not broken
The discipline has moved beyond the neoclassical synthesis. Critics should too
Paul Volcker, 1927–2019
The Fed chair made his name battling inflation, and left his mark on independence and post-crisis financial regulations
The challenges facing Christine Lagarde
The new ECB president will need to focus on a successful review of the ECB’s monetary and communications policy, while encouraging fiscal stimulus and structural reform
Fischer and Hildebrand call for emergency policy tools
Former central bank chiefs say existing monetary tools are “almost exhausted”
Mark Carney on joined-up policy-making, forward guidance and Brexit
BoE governor rules out negative rates and change to inflation targets, offers update on too-big-to-fail and use of CCyBs, highlights challenges of an asymmetric monetary system, hits out at cumbersome payments and warns Facebook’s libra cannot ‘learn as…
Former Fed chairs stress importance of central bank independence
President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised chair Jerome Powell for keeping interest rates too high
Powell plays down fears about record levels of corporate debt
Fed chair’s remarks strike similar chord to those of Ben Bernanke in 2007, but Powell says this time is different
Weakened international co-operation could hinder crisis response – Bernanke
Christina Romer ‘loses sleep at night’ about internationals' readiness to fight a future crisis