Tag Archives: Contributions

CEPR Discussion Paper 13065, July 2018. PDF. (Personal copy.) I offer a macroeconomic perspective on the “Reserves for All” (RFA) proposal to let the general public use electronic central bank money. After distinguishing RFA from cryptocurrencies and relating the proposal to discussions about narrow banking and the abolition of cash I propose an equivalence result according to which a marginal substitution of outside for inside money does not affect macroeconomic outcomes. I identify key...

In the New Yorker, Nathan Heller reviews David Graeber’s “Bullshit Jobs.” In the course of Graeber’s diagnosis, he inaugurates five phyla of bullshit work. “Flunkies,” he says, are those paid to hang around and make their superiors feel important: doormen, useless assistants, receptionists with silent phones, and so on. “Goons” are gratuitous or arms-race muscle; Graeber points to Oxford University’s P.R. staff, whose task appears to be to convince the public that Oxford is a good school....

Radio Bern RaBe, May 15, 2018. HTML with link to podcast (interview starts at 08:15). Interview with Radio Bern RaBe about Vollgeld and the Vollgeld initiative.

[embedded content] Wer soll Franken herstellen dürfen? Nur die Schweizerische Nationalbank, oder auch die Geschäftsbanken wie UBS, CS oder die Kantonalbanken? Ginge es nach der Vollgeld-Initiative, über die wir am 10. Juni abstimmen, wäre künftig klar: Geld als gesetzliches Zahlungsmittel gäbe es nur von der SNB. Offsetmaschine zum Druck von Schweizer Banknoten bei der Schweizerischen Nationalbank. Keystone - Click to...

SRF, April 28, 2018. HTML with link to audio file (interview starts at 13:15). Interview with Swiss public radio about Vollgeld and the Vollgeld initiative.

On their blog, Stephen Cecchetti and Kermit Schoenholtz voice doubts regarding the usefulness of universal central bank digital currency (U-CBDC). They argue: … in an effort to retain their deposit base, commercial banks would surely raise the interest rate they offer to their customers relative to the rate on U-CBDC. … the introduction of U-CBDC would cause a substantial fraction of deposits to shift to the central bank, with the remainder prone to exit in a period of financial stress. …...

- Click to enlarge Die Schweizerische Nationalbank hat dem E-Franken eine Absage erteilt – zu Unrecht, sagt Dirk Niepelt im Interview mit finews.ch. Der Direktor des SNB-nahen Studienzentrums Gerzensee erklärt, warum digitales Geld Vorteile bringt. Vergangene Woche hat sich Andréa Mächler, Mitglied des dreiköpfigen Direktoriums der Schweizerischen Nationalbank (SNB), kritisch zur Einführung eines elektronischen...

finews.ch, April 9, 2018. PDF. Andreas Britt interviewed me. I describe the consequences of “Reserves for All” and point to potential benefits.

In the FT, Martin Arnold reports about plans to launch “Saga,” a reserves-backed krypto currency, maybe the closest substitute yet to central bank digital currency. It is being launched by a Swiss foundation with an advisory board featuring Jacob Frenkel, … Myron Scholes, … and Dan Galai, co-creator of the Vix volatility index. The currency aims to avoid the wild price swings of many cryptocurrencies by tethering itself to reserves deposited in a basket of fiat currencies at commercial...

NZZ, March 15, 2018. PDF. CBDC is not the same as krypto currencies. Easy arguments against CBDC are misleading. Switzerland should not dismiss CBDC too quickly. (The title of the article is misleading, it is not mine. I argued for openness in the discussion rather than for adoption.)