Economics
Gita Gopinath to leave IMF
Fund’s first female chief economist is set to return to Harvard
Delta variant had smaller impact on US consumer spending
Cleveland Fed finds weaker or no link between hospitalisation and spending in 2021
ECB paper examines ‘euroised’ economies
European countries’ informal adoption of euro places limits on central banks, says working paper
Fed’s Bullard believes a ‘five-year window’ for AIT is ‘realistic’
St Louis Fed president says “big tent language” was a reason overshoot details were not specified; “precise numerical implementations” can “get you into trouble”
James Bullard on Fed policy, action and governance
St Louis president calls for tapering amid “exceptional” job market and risk of “more persistent” inflation, quantifies ‘big tent language’ for pioneering AIT move, and details Congress’s role in Fed ethics oversight
IMF: growth prospects dim as pandemic lingers
Fund revises down growth forecasts, warning of inflation, disruption and divergence
Cubero calls for expanded IMF role
Costa Rica governor endorses Resilience and Stability Trust proposal
Empirical economists win Nobel Prize
Card, Angrist and Imbens share prize for work on labour markets and causality
Greater competition cut US banks’ ‘insider lending’ – BdF paper
Researchers quantify bank owners’ and executives’ loans to themselves and their interests
Larry Summers on stagflation risks, lessons from Delphi and never-ending ‘punch’
The former US Treasury secretary speaks about fiscal ‘overexpansion’, Fed/Treasury debt discord, the pitfalls of ‘unknown unknowns’ and central bankers ‘unable’ to remove the ‘punchbowl’
Inequality sharpens monetary policy’s effects – ECB paper
Author analyses “inequality channel” using model with three types of heterogeneous agent
Agustín Carstens on BIS strategic priorities, innovation and central bank policy
The BIS general manager speaks about policy trade-offs at critical time, tackling NBFIs and the dearth of ‘green’ assets, tech collaboration, and why he favours Biden’s $3.5trn infrastructure bill
Bundesbank paper looks at short sellers in the pandemic
Short sellers saw Covid-19 would strongly affect fiscally constrained countries - paper
BDF paper analyses banks’ capital buffers
Researchers suggest new approach to setting banks’ structural and cyclical reserve levels
Book notes: Robert Triffin, by Ivo Maes with Ilaria Pasotti
Triffin’s story is well told by Maes, whose extensive personal and academic research shines through on page after page
Central banks set monetary policy around eight times a year
African central banks reported setting monetary policy less frequently than peers
Strategies for change: central banks’ quest for diversity
Dedicated diversity strategies remain uncommon among central banks, despite growing recognition of the need for better minority representation
Policy-makers and staff often determine headline forecasts
Joint approach may help conquer systemic bias
Majority of central banks do not take account of forecast errors
Surveys of inflationary expectations used widely, alongside macroeconomic and market indicators
Some philosophical questions about the future of central banking
Kenneth Rogoff weighs up the many challenges facing central banks in the years ahead, from debt and inflation to negative rates and the dangers of ‘mission creep’
Dutch households to keep most pandemic savings
DNB still expects strong recovery in household consumption if social distancing measures are lifted
Jackson Hole conference switches to online-only model
Kansas City Fed cancels Wyoming get-together, citing Delta variant
How we can improve gender diversity in economics
Mary Suiter and Oksana Leukhina say gender diversity in economics must be championed
Eurozone returns to growth in Q2
Employment increases, but economic expansion is uneven across economies