Paper Money

2013 ◽  
Vol 103 (2) ◽  
pp. 563-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A Sims

Drastic changes in central bank operations and monetary institutions in recent years have made previously standard approaches to explaining the determination of the price level obsolete. Recent expansions of central bank balance sheets and of the levels of richcountry sovereign debt, as well as the evolving political economy of the European Monetary Union, have made it clear that fiscal policy and monetary policy are intertwined. Our thinking and teaching about inflation, monetary policy, and fiscal policy should be based on models that recognize fiscal-monetary policy interactions. (JEL E31, E52, E58, E62, H63)

Author(s):  
Pierre L. Siklos

Crises come in various forms, and their impact is not predicable with much accuracy. Crises in emerging markets are not the same as those in advanced economies. By 2007, the idea that monetary policy ought to be rules-based was widely accepted and copied around the world. Policymakers believed that inflation and macroeconomic slack were all that mattered. Demographic and structural factors were underappreciated. The wrong conclusions are now being drawn: rules should not be abandoned, but monetary policy can be improved. Monetary policy now relies more on words. An expansion of central bank balance sheets has taken place and central bank independence is a quaint idea. Central banks no longer influence just prices; they also change financial system quantities. This leads to rising policy uncertainty. Central banks stand accused of hubris, with little clear idea of the “new normal” and how this will redefine a future monetary policy strategy.


2013 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippine Cour-Thimann

AbstractThe exceptional measures by central banks during the financial crisis have led to renewed interest in the redistributive effects of monetary policy. This paper adopts the perspective of central bank balance sheets to assess such effects. It uses information from the euro area National Central Banks and the US Federal Reserve Banks to analyse the regional and sectoral effects of monetary policy. Central bank balance sheets capture sustained imbalances in payment flows across the euro area countries that peaked at 10% of GDP in the so-called Target balances, and across the US districts that reached 5% of GDP in the equivalent Interdistrict Settlement Accounts. These imbalances, combined with accommodative central bank liquidity, shifted risks from the private financial sector to the public sector and among taxpayers - yet, mechanisms are in place to mitigate such risks and the associated redistributive effects. The liquidity injection, while directly channelled at the stressed regions or sectors, has indirectly supported the financial sector at large. In different institutional contexts, the financial centres in Germany and in the New York district have been strengthened. They have been net recipients of payment inflows from the rest of the respective currency areas, equivalent in amounts to a third of the liquidity injection during the crisis.


Author(s):  
Ulrich Bindseil ◽  
Alessio Fotia

AbstractThis chapter introduces conventional monetary policy, i.e. monetary policy during periods of economic and financial stability and when short-term interest rates are not constrained by the zero lower bound. We introduce the concept of an operational target of monetary policy and explain why central banks normally give this role to the short-term interbank rate. We briefly touch macroeconomics by outlining how central banks should set interest rates across time to achieve their ultimate target, e.g. price stability, and we acknowledge the complications in doing so. We then zoom further into monetary policy operations and central bank balance sheets by developing the concepts of autonomous factor, monetary policy instruments, and liquidity-absorbing and liquidity providing balance sheet items. Subsequently we explain how these quantities relate to short-term interest rates, and how the central bank can rely on this relation to steer its operational target, and thereby the starting point of monetary policy transmission. Finally, we explain the importance of the collateral framework and related risk control measures (e.g. haircuts) for the liquidity of banks and for the conduct of central bank credit operations.


2009 ◽  
pp. 9-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Kudrin

The article examines the causes of origin and manifestation of the current global financial crisis and the policies adopted in developed countries in 2007—2008 to deal with it. It considers the effects of the financial crisis on Russia’s economy and monetary policy of the Central Bank in the current conditions as well as the main guidelines for the fiscal policy under different energy prices. The measures for fighting the crisis that the Russian government and the Central Bank use to support the real economy are described.


2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Rodríguez ◽  
Carlos Carrasco

The paper analyses the monetary policy responses of the European Central Bank (ECB) to the global financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis. Our goals are on the one hand to explain chronologically the main measures in conventional and unconventional policies adopted by the ECB and on the other hand to analyse their effects on key interest rates, monetary aggregates and the money multiplier. The assessment is that the ECB?s monetary policy responses to the crisis have been ?too little, too late?, constrained by the institutional framework, which prevents the ECB from acting as a true central bank with the role of lender of last resort.


2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-122
Author(s):  
André Sterzel

Abstract The European sovereign debt crisis has shown the tight linkage between sovereign and bank balance sheets. In the aftermath of the crisis, several reforms have been discussed in order to mitigate the sovereign-bank nexus. These reforms include the abolishment of preferential government bond treatment in banking regulation. This paper gives a detailed overview of literature and data which are closely related to the existing preferential sovereign bond treatment in bank regulation and highlights the need for reforms especially in the euro area. Against this background, the following three regulatory reforms are described and discussed: (i) positive risk weights for government bonds in bank capital regulation, (ii) sovereign exposure limits, and (iii) haircuts for government bonds in bank liquidity regulation. The discussion focusses on the effects of these reforms for bank behaviour and financial stability. JEL Classification: H63, H12, G11, G18


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document