Tag Archives: Contributions

In an NBER working paper and a column on VoxEU, Michael Bordo and Andrew Levin make the case for central bank issued digital currency (CBDC). Bordo and Levin favor an account-based CBDC system (managed or supervised by the central bank) rather than central bank issued tokens in the blockchain. They emphasize the Friedman rule and the fact that interest paying CBDC affords the possibility to satisfy the rule: These … goals – … a stable unit of account and an efficient medium of exchange –...

The Economist reports that according to estimates, undoing identity fraud can take an average of six months and 100 to 200 hours of a person’s time. In addition there is the risk of substantial financial losses due to identity fraud. Suppose a data breach exposes personal information of 1 million people. As a consequence, 0.1% of the affected persons suffer financial costs of $100 each, and all affected persons spend 100 hours to undo the damage. Suppose the average wage of the affected...

NZZ, August 17, 2017. HTML, PDF. The Vollgeld initiative may point to a problem but it does not propose a viable solution. Even with Vollgeld, the time consistency friction with its Too-Big-To-Fail implication would persist. A more flexible, liberal approach appears more promising. It would give the general public a choice between holding deposits and reserves. Financial institutions and central banks around the world are pushing in that direction.

Berlin Tegel airport (TXL). Air Berlin flight to Zurich. Passengers have been waiting in the cabin for about half an hour. Apparently, some disagreement or confusion among ground staff on how to deal with delayed passengers. Enter the Maître de Cabine: Ja, meine Damen und Herren. Sie haben es sicher schon bemerkt: Hier wieder mal völliges Chaos in Berlin Tegel … (Well, Ladies and Gentlemen: As you surely realize, we have once again complete chaos here in Berlin Tegel …) While Berlin (and...

Finanz und Wirtschaft, August 2, 2017. PDF. Macroeconomists are neither forecasters nor economic policy makers. They devise models. Economic policy makers are in charge of applying them.

In the FT, Mehreen Khan reports about the IMF’s conditional acceptance to lend to Greece. The IMF’s “agreement in principle” (AIP) tool draws on a practice where the fund is able to greenlight its involvement in a debtor country, conditional on the government and its creditors agreeing to future debt relief measures. Of course, the dispute about the merits of debt relief is unresolved. The IMF thinks Greek debt is ‘unsustainable’ and the European creditors should bear more losses, earlier...

In the Berner Zeitung, Johannes Reichen reports about planned maintenance work on Lake Gerzensee’s overflow. The Study Center (which owns the lake located on the territory of three communities) is portrayed as an institution that could have given more money … Interested parties are welcome to inquire if they wish to know more.

In the Trustlines Network every user is acting as a bank by granting credit lines to friends they trust. This allows to issue people powered money between friends and facilitate secure payments between strangers, by sending payments along a chain of trusting friends. Think of IOUs or cheques and netting in the blockchain.

Panel discussion with Ernst Baltensperger, Otmar Issing, Fritz Zurbrügg and Mark Dittli (moderator) on the occasion of the publication of the Festschrift in honour of Ernst Baltensperger, Bern, June 16, 2017. SNB press release. Video (SNB Forschungs-TV).

In: Thomas Moser, Carlos Lenz, Marcel Savioz and Dirk Niepelt, editorial committee, Monetary Economic Issues Today, Festschrift in Honour of Ernst Baltensperger, Swiss National Bank/Orell Füssli, Zürich, June 2017. PDF of draft. The sovereign money initiative (Vollgeldinitiative) seeks to gain greater control over the money and credit supply, to increase financial stability and to achieve a fairer distribution of seigniorage income. The initiative’s suggested approach – a ban on active...