Pandemic recession and helicopter money: Venice, 1629–1631

We analyse the money-financed fiscal stimulus implemented in Venice during the famine and plague of 1629–31, which was equivalent to a ‘net-worth helicopter money’ strategy – a monetary expansion generating losses to the issuer. We argue that the strategy aimed at reconciling the need to subsidize inhabitants suffering from containment policies with the desire to prevent an increase in long-term government debt, but it generated much monetary instability and had to be quickly reversed. This episode highlights the redistributive implications of the design of macroeconomic policies and the role of political economy factors in determining such designs.

Risk Assessment of Local Government Debt based on KMV Model: A Case Study of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province

The present government debt governance focuses on calculating, preventing, and controlling local government debt risk. The default probability of local government debt in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, is calculated using a modified “Kealhofer, McQuown, and Vasicek” (KMV) model. The findings reveal that Hangzhou’s debt risk in the next three years is usually manageable, but that debt risk will progressively emerge in the coming years when the debt payback cycle begins.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - POVERTY IN EUROPE

The paper presents some aspects about poverty in Europe taking also into consideration the new pandemic context. Some indicators linked with the topic were chosen. The indicators refer to people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, severally materially deprived people, unemployment and employment, government debt. The information was analysed by means of statistical indicators. At the end of the paper, a few aspects regarding the impact of the COVID-19 crisis are presented.

Managing the Risks of Negative Interest Rates

The acceleration in the issuance of government debt since the global financial crisis has led central bankers to engineer interest rates that are historically low in nominal terms and consistently lower than inflation rates. Although the ostensible aim of this policy is to stimulate economic growth, maintaining negative real rates also goes a long way so that government debt is manageable and will decline in the long run, relative to the size of the economy. Financial institutions hold the great majority of government debt, and their books of retail and corporate loans are expanding briskly at a time when ultra-low interest rates make borrowing especially attractive. Rates paid on deposits are low, in advanced economies, even negative in the euro zone in nominal terms. That helps to offset the reduction in income that banks earn on their lending. Even so, the extreme and unique conditions resulting from persistent negative real interest rates mean that banks must take particular care to manage their interest-rate risk in the context of other risk types and the banks’ profit-and-loss analysis.