Official Money
2. For and against reform
We should start building a consensus on world money
What are the forces favouring reform – and those obstructing it? Natural development: There is a natural tendency for a dominant currency to emerge as the de facto global currency. The US dollar has served that purpose and inertia keeps it in the leading place. But It is in the interests of the US…
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3. New models for banking and international money
Concluding this three-part article
We need radical new models of international money as well as global banking and finance. The underlying purposes are to re-connect finance with the real world and to put individual responsibility and risk-bearing capacity back at the centre of the system. There is an important role for governments, which must agree and set…
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This month I have enjoyed wonderful conversations with three elder statesman of international finance and economic policy – Paul Volcker, Jacques de Larosière and Allan Meltzer. They all agreed on one big thing – much of what has gone wrong is down to the absence of a proper international monetary system. This is a…
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A Debate with Allan Meltzer (Part 1)
This post and the next contain a recent email exchange that we have decided to make public
Professor Allan Meltzer debates international monetary issues and The Money Trap with Robert Pringle On 3/14/2014 12:57 PM, Robert Pringle wrote: Allan, Thinking further about the international monetary system, I now find it difficult to conceive monetary stability being established in one country alone – even if that country is the US. This…
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On 15 March, 2014, at 22.24 Robert Pringle wrote: WHAT WE AGREE ON It is necessary to agree on many things to have a useful discussion, and it is not surprising we do as my thinking has been much influenced by yours for many years. In a sense I am trying to reconcile my understanding…
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Allan Meltzer’s plan for world monetary reform
Testimony January 9, 2014, House Financial Services Committee
Professor Meltzer’s proposal can be compared with that advocated in “The Money Trap”. Both authors agree on the need for reform of the international monetary system; they agree this must entail discipline on fiscal and monetary policies of member countries and they also agre that any viable scheme should rest on the voluntary consent of…
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Mark Carney tries on his new hats
What lessons can we draw from the Mais Lecture?
As predicted in The Money Trap, central banks are in process of ditching inflation targeting as a monetary rule. Needless to say, this is not how they see it. At the Bank of England, Mark Carney thinks he looks fancy wearing the new hats George Osborne has given him. He tried them on…
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Adair Turner (1): Right on the case for radical reform
Current measures "work" by stimulating the very growth in debt that got us into this mess
One person who fully grasps the urgent need for more radical reforms is Lord (Adair) Turner, former head of Britain Financial Services Authority. He also specifies what reforms he feels are needed and makes an eloquent plea for them. These two features set his contributions apart from 90% of writings on the topic. Here I…
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Caveat: I should mention to begin with that this critique is based on Lord Turner’s paper on “Escaping the Debt Addiction”; one paper cannot cover every area and he has (I understand) written a soon-to-be-published book that will presumably range more widely. The approach in this paper can be compared with that developed…
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The bare bones of a new policy regime
It should comprises two elements - a new international monetary system and a new banking system
As argued in the post “Regime Uncertainty Undermines Confidence”, only a new policy regime, not changes to individual policy areas (such as regulatory policy) will reduce the existential angst that is crippling business and over-shadowing the recovery. New money….. It should establish a global currency standard. The standard should be sufficiently attractive that countries…
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