Archive for October 23rd, 2017

Suggestion from Catholic Social Services Australia: Central Bank Boards have a ‘representative of the poor’…

October 23, 2017

Couple of months ago, this blog had pointed how Proctor of South Africa wanted their central bank to have wider goals. Later we learnt that this plea was dismissed.

Now Catholic Social Services Australia gets into action and have made a report:  An Economy That Works for All. One of their suggestion is:

create a new position on the RBA Board:  Appoint a preeminent Australian who has knowledge of and experience of the consequences of monetary policy on the poor and marginalised to reinforce the inter-connectedness of economic and social policy and acknowledge the role the RBA can play in using monetary policy to improve the lives of the poorest and most marginalised in our society.

Usman Chohan of Univ of New South Wales responds  (who also points to all these developments) saying central banks can no more ignore inequality. Central bank policies have hit the poor disproportionately. But whether we should have a representative of the poor?

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Posted in Central Banks / Monetary Policy, Discussion | 1 Comment »

Eastern branch of Libyan Central Bank launches its own coins made in Russia

October 23, 2017

Libya has been under deep turmoil since Gaddafi exit and civil war. There are several divisions in the country and confusions for an outsider.

However, this bit of news is interesting. Eventually, it all boils down to control of monetary system for the governments/authorities:

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Posted in Academic research & research papers, Central Banks / Monetary Policy, Discussion | 2 Comments »

A new tool to understand central bank policy changes: change in facial expressions of the central banker!

October 23, 2017

The craziness to predict central bank policy changes has reached a new madness. Now central bankers will have to keep a stone face while interacting with media etc.

Japanese artificial intelligence researchers have figured ways to read possible policy changes using a software which reads changes in facial expressions:

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Posted in Central Banks / Monetary Policy, Discussion | 1 Comment »

If demonetisation was a nudge towards digital payments, what is a hammer?

October 23, 2017

Just read this piece in Mint which is unbelievable given all the evidence we now have. Above all the author says it was a nudge towards digital payments! Really? Then what is a hammer? The debates over demonetisation will continue for along time given the move but calling it a nudge is just shocking. Nudge is just a gentle push and demonetisation was anything but that.

Given the Riksbank Prize to Prof Thaler for his nudge theory, we are seeing a lot of articles connecting his ideas to policies in India etc. But history suggests neither nudge is a novel idea nor policy can be connected to nudges.

But then even Prof Thaler supported demonetisation was announced only to take back his words soon thereafter. He was rebuked sharply by Prof Nirvikar Singh in this piece. It was highly unfortunate for likes of Prof Thaler to just advocate a policy without looking at ground realities. Would he have supported a similar move in US?

Posted in Behavior Eco/Fin | Leave a Comment »

Numismatic research: How the imperial monetary system brought China to a low in the 19th century…

October 23, 2017

Fascinating piece which tells this story of Dr. Werner Burger. Dr Burger via his amazing research showed how the monetary system was the main reason behind China’s low in the 19th century. Historians usually say Opium wars was the reason for the decline but Burger thinks otherwise.

Apart from findings, the piece shows how Burger preserved to do research on such a tricky topic:

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Posted in Central Banks / Monetary Policy, Discussion | Leave a Comment »

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