Tag Archives: Draghi
Thatcher, Volcker, Keynes and the power of ideas
The death of Margaret Thatcher reminds us all of the power of ideas, when allied to guts and leadership, to change the world. She identified one area of national life after another where restrictions and old ways of doing things were holding back innovation and the spirit of enterprise that lay dormant in the British…
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The Fed at 100
The Federal Reserve Act was signed into law by President Wilson on December 23 1913. Its purposes were “To provide for the establishment of Federal reserve banks, to furnish an elastic currency, to afford means of rediscounting commercial paper, to establish a more effective supervision of banking in the United States, and for other purposes.”…
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What’s the G30 doing?
It follows the appointment of G30 member Mario Draghi to be president of the European Central Bank (which raised eyebrows in some circles, see here) . Last year also member Mervyn King became chair of the Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS), the Global Economy Meeting (GEM) and the Economic Consultative Committee…
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Why gold is back
In investment terms, we face a scenario that says neither bonds nor equities are likely to rise. The ‘uncertainty’ is greater than ever. And it is ‘uncertainty’ that drives people into gold, not relative values in paper currencies. We have to think that gold is the central thing around which everything else moves….
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Eurozone to lead world out of the money trap?
There is a long, long way to go. But confidence is gradually returning to the eurozone – confidence that at least a break-up of the eurozone will be avoided (thought his does not exclude the possibility that Greece may leave). The fall in spreads on Spanish and Italian bonds over German bunds is one…
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Central banks remain stuck in the trap
Mervyn King has mounted a defence of inflation targeting. Monetary policy, he claims, is part of the solution to the crisis, not part of the problem. This view was echoed by many official spokesmen at the recent IMF meeting in Tokyo. Christine Lagarde praised the central banks. There are quite minor…
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Hypocrisy does not help
The financial crisis that began on this date in August 2007 has not ended. It continues, and will continue so long as policy-makers and economists fail to learn its lessons. Instead, what we have is a mountain of hypocrisy. Almost everybody is being economical with the truth. This applies to central bankers, financial regulators and…
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Nicolas Krul writes:
Picking up on Robert’s last story, we must look to the ECB to restore trust in financial intermediation. Yes, the developed world faces another year of stagnation and interacting imbalances that amplify risk aversion and spread the fear of spending. But there is no surprise in the new setback. With budgets in disarray and rising…
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Draghi plays a trump card
My book argues that the euro crisis illustrates the dilemmas confronting all countries in a global economy. It is not at heart the euro but the global financial system that is the source of these dilemmas. The chances for the survival of an integrated world financial and economic system are at stake in the battle…
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