The Ikon
A common criticism of proposals for reform of the international monetary system is that they are not politically possible. Of course, there are other grounds on which they can be and are criticised – especially when they call for a return to stable exchange rates, a howl goes up that this would sacrifice the domestic…
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At the conclusion of a recent star-studded IMF conference, chief economist Olivier Blanchard argued that we may need negative real interest rates for a long time. Here is the passage in full: “Now let me now turn to monetary policy, and touch on three issues: the implications of the liquidity trap, the provision of liquidity,…
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Under present arrangements, finance too often acts as a malevolent force, rewarding private sectional interests at the expense of the public interest. This is because the globalisation of markets has run ahead of our power to control them. Properly harnessed, global finance could be, again, an enormously powerful force for good. Designing such a harness…
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We need two, inter-related, big reforms – first to the official international monetary system and secondly to banking/financial markets. The international monetary system The first class of reforms needs to start at the beginning – with new reflection on the true nature of money. This is the most fundamental, and yet unavoidable, question raised by…
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Which anchor for money?
Notes on talk to the Santa Colomba meeting
The supply of money needs to be limited or ‘anchored’ to prevent excessive supply reducing its value. At present money is supposed to be limited by central banks following inflation targeting models. However, this paradigm has lost traction under the strain of the crisis. In effect we have returned to a discretionary monetary policy,…
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Central banks into equities
A rare move out of the money trap?
When I first proposed that central banks might hold a basket of diversified equities on the assets side of their balance sheets, it was an unheard-of notion. My friends advised me to take it out. “People will think you’re crazy”, they said. Now it turns out that that is exactly what a growing number of…
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Gold, credit and the Ikon: Three kinds of money
Give us the money we deserve!
What are the differences between a commodity money, credit money and the Ikon – currency of the future ? Using the gold standard as an example of the first, where the price of gold was fixed and money was convertible into it on demand at that price, gold and sure claims on gold were money….
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Is “The Money Trap” too radical?
Policy driven by erroneous ideas
The most common response I have had to the proposals made in my book for a new banking system and global monetary reform is that they are too radical, too ambitious, and won’t happen. When I ask such critics (who are usually of a friendly disposition) what are they suggesting, they usually reply that slow…
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The “G20/IMF Communique”
After intensive discussions over recent weeks the heads of state and governments of the G20 couldn't agree on a statement. So they asked me to write it for them.
Nearly six years after the outbreak of the worst financial crisis in history, prospects for a full economic recovery remain elusive. Unemployment remains at very high levels, and standards of living for many people in developed countries are likely to fall over the first two decades of this century. Meanwhile, emerging markets remain vulnerable…
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The new global monetary standard
Introducing an investment currency
This is a technical appendix to the G20 Communique announced in a separate press notice Rationale: A global currency standard will give the peoples of the world a common measure of value, linking past, present and future, and connecting peoples across space as well as time. The old complicated network of dozens of currencies is…
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