Tag Archives: Contributions

Jusletter, 1 July 2019, with Corinne Zellweger-Gutknecht. PDF. Libra is supposed to be backed; the returns on the securities backing it are going to be distributed among the Libra partners; and Libra’s price is supposed to be managed by a network of market makers. We don’t know much more. Will market makers have the incentive to deliver?

Finanz und Wirtschaft, June 29, 2019. PDF. It is not central bank digital currency (CBDC) per se which might act as a game changer in financial markets. What will be key is how central banks accommodate the introduction of CBDC. In principle, this accommodation can go very far, to the point where the introduction of CBDC does not affect macroeconomic outcomes. But such complete accommodation is unlikely. On the one hand, central banks will want to exploit the new monetary policy options...

At the conference of “Positiva Pengar” and “Monetative” in Stockholm, I argued that it is not so much the introduction of CBDC which would make a difference, but the policies accompanying such an introduction. This view is backed by research of Markus Brunnermeier and myself, as well as by myself. Many of the proponents of the sovereign money movement appeared open to the argument. Some of the followers, however, did not; they associate CBDC with many benefits that money, in whatever...

Central Banking reports about the new working paper by Markus Brunnermeier and myself.

NZZ, April 25, 2019. PDF. Modern monetary theory (MMT) is neither a theory, nor modern, nor exclusively monetary. I discuss fallacies related to MMT. Dynamic inefficiency requires permanent, not transitory, r<g. For now, policy makers should rely on common sense rather than MMT.

NZZ, April 25, 2019. PDF. Modern monetary theory (MMT) is neither a theory, nor modern, nor exclusively monetary. I discuss fallacies related to MMT. Dynamic inefficiency requires permanent, not transitory, r<g. For now, policy makers should rely on common sense rather than MMT.

VoxEU, March 20, 2019, with Markus Brunnermeier. HTML. Both proponents and opponents have suggested that CBDC would fundamentally change the macroeconomy, either for the better or the worse. We question this paradigm. We derive an equivalence result according to which the introduction of CBDC need not alter the allocation nor the price system. And we argue that key concerns put forward in discussions about CBDC are misplaced. See also our VoxEU book chapter and my paper from last year.

VoxEU, March 20, 2019, with Markus Brunnermeier. HTML. Both proponents and opponents have suggested that CBDC would fundamentally change the macroeconomy, either for the better or the worse. We question this paradigm. We derive an equivalence result according to which the introduction of CBDC need not alter the allocation nor the price system. And we argue that key concerns put forward in discussions about CBDC are misplaced. See also our VoxEU book chapter and my paper from last year.

NZZ, March 13, 2019. PDF. Long-term real interest rates do not reflect monetary policy. In the recent past, monetary policy has contributed to lower fixed-income interest rates but also to higher returns on other asset classes. Complaining about low rates but not adjusting one’s portfolio makes little sense; there is no “financial repression.” If politicians want to subsidize pension funds they should contribute funds from the government budget rather than asking the central bank to...

NZZ, March 13, 2019. PDF. Updated: Ökonomenstimme, March 22, 2019. HTML. Long-term real interest rates do not reflect monetary policy. In the recent past, monetary policy has contributed to lower fixed-income interest rates but also to higher returns on other asset classes. Complaining about low rates but not adjusting one’s portfolio makes little sense; there is no “financial repression.” If politicians want to subsidize pension funds they should contribute funds from the government...