SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | When Bernanke took the Fed´s helm the gap had been closed. What happened going forward, in particular the complete loss of nominal stability in 2008, which made the financial crisis immensely more severe, is the doing of the Bernanke Fed.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | Friday evening Christina Romer gave the Sumerlin Lecture at Johns Hopkins University. The lecture was called “Monetary Policy in the Post-Crisis World: Lessons Learned and Strategies for the Future.” She touches on many bases, some suspect, like when she says “Financial stability is job number one of any central bank. Without that-nothing else matters”. Saying “Nominal stability” would have been closer to the thruth.
MADRID | Spain is one of the European countries with the highest black economy and tax loss revenue since the current crisis began. This was revealed by a survey conducted by two Spanish tax inspectors, who estimate the undeclared economy was of 28.7% of GDP this year. To prevent loss of tax revenue they praise for limiting the 500 and 200 euro-banknotes and promoting incentives on electronic payments avoiding European regulations that unbalance the system.
MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | It is possible, as we have seen over the past few years, that no matter how much the Central Banks increase their money emissions, it won’t change people’s preference for liquidity. It isn’t clear that an increase in banking credit will swell investment either, especially if investors own a higher than normal debt stock and if they don’t see a clear future profitability. The same applies to families.
MADRID | By J.P. Marín Arrese | US Congress brokered a last-minute deal to prevent sovereign default and shutdown. Yet a deep damage has been inflicted on the country’s image. Holding Medicare as a hostage happened to be a bad movement that backfired on hard-line Republicans. Unable to implement their doomsday bet, they’ve been confronted to a great amount of public pressure.
SHANGHAI | By Andy Xie via Caixin | A minority enraged at another expansion of the U.S. government will eventually cause a default, ending the dollar’s dominance and making gold dearer.
NEW YORK | By Ana Fuentes | If the Senate agrees and everything goes by the script, President Obama will pick Janet Yellen as the Federal Reserve’s next leader on Wednesday, the White House said. Ms. Yellen, 67, has been the Fed’s vice chairwoman since 2010 and would be the first woman to run the central bank. Among her first tasks is how quickly to wind down the U.S. expansionary monetary policy. Will she take even more aggressive measures to boost growth? If so, how will markets react?
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | ‘Uncertainty’ is getting more and more attention. John Taylor is a great supporter, so much so that a while back I did a post with the title “Taylor´s Uncertainty Principle”, and argued that what was really keeping the recovery back was the “on and off” decisions by the Fed.
MADRID | By JP Marin Arrese | These days, the EU institutions remain on standby mode till Angela Merkel steps in. The ECB is no exception. It is switched on but not actually working. Europe is waiting for the new German government to set the new agenda’s content and rhythm. Only then, substantive decisions could be taken.
THE CORNER TEAM | By Zsolt Darvas and Silvia Merler via Bruegel | During the crisis the European Central Bank’s roles have been greatly extended beyond its price stability mandate. In addition to the primary objective of price stability and the secondary objective of supporting EU economic policies, we identify ten new tasks related to monetary policy and financial stability.