Dirk Niepelt

In an Independent Review of BIS Research, Franklin Allen, Charles Bean and José De Gregorio conclude that … BIS research clearly ‘punches above its weight’ compared to its central bank peers. Finally, the relative performance of the BIS has clearly improved over the past five years, a tribute to the influence of the previous (Steve Cecchetti) and current (Claudio Borio and Hyun Shin) leadership … They recommend, among other points: The research programme should have a more clearly defined...

On VoxEU, Paolo Pasimeni and Stéphanie Riso argue that at the EU level, cross-border redistribution is limited: The EU budget accounts for roughly 1% of the EU’s GDP. Around 80% of it, on average, returns back to each country in the form of various allocated expenditures, and only a limited part is actually redistributed among countries. On average over the past 15 years, the redistribution operated by the budget at the level of the EU was equal to 0.2% of the Union’s GDP. As a matter of...

On VoxEU, Adrian Jäggi, Martin Schlegel and Attilio Zanetti report that the safe-haven currencies Swiss franc and Japanese yen react strongly to non-domestic macro surprises, and did so especially during the financial crisis. For European macro surprises, only German data influence safe-haven currencies.

To counteract discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, the State of California prohibits state funded travel (for instance, by employees of the University of California) to states deemed to discriminate, including Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

In Daniel Quinn’s “Ishmael,” a gorilla offers his perspective on human civilization and the narratives surrounding it. Ishmael—the gorilla—characterizes the early agricultural revolution as the takeoff of the nowadays-dominant “Takers’” culture, a culture that does not only reject the hunter-gatherer and herder life of “Leaver” tribes but also finds it acceptable to eradicate the latter. The Takers reject the notion that man is part of a balanced, competitive and evolving natural system;...

In a Bank of England Financial Stability Paper, Olga Cielinska, Andreas Joseph, Ujwal Shreyas, John Tanner and Michalis Vasios analyze transactions on the Swiss Franc foreign exchange over-the-counter derivatives market around January 15, 2015, the day when the Swiss National Bank de-pegged the Swiss Franc. From the abstract: The removal of the floor led to extreme price moves in the forwards market, similar to those observed in the spot market, while trading in the Swiss franc options...

The World Wealth and Income Database.

In the Tagesanzeiger, Felix Schaad offers a caricature with the title: “Donald Trump rejects the notion that he could be blackmailed.”

On his (Le Monde) blog, Thomas Piketty emphasizes that labor productivity in France and Germany is as high as in the US, and much higher than in Italy or the UK (his figures here and here).

Ted Honderich’s The Determinism and Freedom Philosophy Website.