Conference jointly organized by Bocconi’s Algorand FinTech Lab and CEPR’s RPN FinTech & Digital Currencies. Keynotes by Hyun Song Shin and Xavier Vives. Organized by Claudio Tebaldi and Dirk Niepelt. CEPR’s conference website with program. Bocconi’s website with videos and more.
Read More »Digital Money and Finance: What’s New?
CEPR/SUERF/CB&DC webinar with Darrell Duffie, Todd Keister, Harald Uhlig, Dirk Niepelt. Youtube Digitisation rapidly changes money, banking and finance. Are these changes fundamental and radical—or part of a continuous process of technological progress and efficiency improvement? Do academics have to re-think money, banking and finance—or do conventional theories apply? And do finance professionals and regulators need to re-assess their frameworks and tools to keep up with the...
Read More »Webinar on “Digital Money and Finance: What’s New?,” CEPR/SUERF/CB&DC, 2023
CEPR/SUERF/CB&DC webinar with Darrell Duffie, Todd Keister, Harald Uhlig, Dirk Niepelt. Youtube Digitisation rapidly changes money, banking and finance. Are these changes fundamental and radical—or part of a continuous process of technological progress and efficiency improvement? Do academics have to re-think money, banking and finance—or do conventional theories apply? And do finance professionals and regulators need to re-assess their frameworks and tools to keep up with the...
Read More »“Nicht-Wissen kann schützen (Knowing Less Protects),” FuW, 2018
Finanz und Wirtschaft, November 24, 2018. PDF. Ökonomenstimme, November 26, 2018. HTML. European firms dealing with Iran face U.S. “secondary sanctions.” European counter measures (including a blocking statute) prove toothless. Even central banks in the European Union surrender to U.S. pressure, as does SWIFT. Ignorance is bliss: For a sovereign, the best protection against foreign states pressuring to monitor domestic citizens and businesses may be to know as little as possible.
Read More »“Nicht-Wissen kann schützen (Knowing Less Protects),” FuW, 2018
Finanz und Wirtschaft, November 24, 2018. PDF. Ökonomenstimme, November 26, 2018. HTML. European firms dealing with Iran face U.S. “secondary sanctions.” European counter measures (including a blocking statute) prove toothless. Even central banks in the European Union surrender to U.S. pressure, as does SWIFT. Ignorance is bliss: For a sovereign, the best protection against foreign states pressuring to monitor domestic citizens and businesses may be to know as little as possible.
Read More »Saga—A Global CBDC?
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...
Read More »“Für elektronisches Zentralbankgeld (In Favor of Central Bank Digital Currency),” NZZ, 2018
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.)
Read More »Money, Banking, and Dreams
In another excellent post on Moneyness, J P Koning likens the monetary system to the plot in the movie Inception, featuring a dream piled on a dream piled on a dream piled on a dream. Koning explains that [l]ike Inception, our monetary system is a layer upon a layer upon a layer. Anyone who withdraws cash at an ATM is ‘kicking’ back into the underlying central bank layer from the banking layer; depositing cash is like sedating oneself back into the overlying banking layer. Monetary...
Read More »Krypto Currencies and Privacy
On Wired, Andy Greenberger discusses Monero, Dash, and Zcash, krypto currencies that provide more privacy than bitcoin and its derivatives. Unlike commercial services like PayPal, Bitcoin allows anyone to spend money online without providing identifying details. But if someone’s Bitcoin address is linked with their real identity, any transaction from that address is entirely visible on the public blockchain … Hiding those transactions requires taking extra steps, like routing bitcoins...
Read More »“Blockchain – Todesurteil oder Wunderwaffe der Notenbanken? (Blockchain – How Does it Affect Central Banks?),” SRF, 2016
SRF, October 8, 2016. Link to MP3. Excerpts from discussion about the role of the blockchain technology for central banking.
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