Tag Archives: financial crisis
Globalisation – a poisoned chalice
Against such a backdrop, financial globalisation appears to be a weak force. Yet it exists. It exists in many senses. Nations may raise capital controls – though surprisingly few actually have done. But there are ways round them. People’s desire to connect to the major centres of finance where the opportunities and investment chances…
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What major monetary and banking reforms are needed?
The global financial crisis should be seen as a symptom of the lack of fit between three pieces of the jigsaw of modern finance – national or regional monies, innovative financial markets and a globalized financial system. It provided both an encouragement and a warning – an encouragement to search for alternatives…
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2. For and against reform
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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Encounters with Paul Volcker and Jacques de Larosière
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)
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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A Debate with Allan Meltzer (Part II)
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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Mark Carney tries on his new hats
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
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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Adair Turner (2): Misguided remedies
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
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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