Perspectives on current macroeconomic developments and macroeconomic policy issues.
The Independent Commission on Banking proposed important reforms to the structure of the UK banking industry this week, including higher capital ratios for the retail sections of universal banks, ring-fencing of those parts of a bank so that they can...
In the last couple of years I have often heard people express the view that quantitative easing (QE) is conventional open market operations, perhaps on an unusually large scale, but otherwise nothing to justify the title 'unconventional monetary policy'....
Following on from the ECB decision to raise interest rates, debate continues as to whether or not the Bank of England should engage a process of interest rate normalization, in order address current above target inflation. A key argument against monetary...
As was widely anticipated, the ECB became the first of the major central banks to raise interest rates in the current cycle. Futures trading suggests another two or three 25 basis point rate hikes by the end of 2011. The ECB, traditionally hawkish on...
Gavyn Davies has launched a very interesting debate on whether or not the upcoming completion of QE2 will result in a surge in Treasury yields, as a key driver of recent bond demand disappears from the market. One view is that a decline in the flow demand...
The prospects for the UK economy and the debate concerning the optimal macroeconomic policy path depend in part on the kinds of shocks thought to have impacted UK markets during recent years. One perspective, which I fully endorse, is that the UK has...
From time to time I will use this blog to make some points about recent developments in the world economy, the policy dilemmas facing fiscal and monetary authorities and different aspects of the global economic outlook. In the past I have written non-technical...
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