Tag Archives: Notes

My interview with Claudia Gnehm, published in Tamedia outlets, together with the accompanying article in Finanz und Wirtschaft, generated many responses from readers. Here are the comments that received the most support from other readers: Most-liked comments on interview: #1 Dirk Niepelt betont in diesem wohltuend klaren Artikel, dass das Verursacherprinzip als Richtschnur auch und gerade für Banken und für die UBS gilt. Es kann nicht sein, dass sich eine systemrelevante Bank sehr...

After leaving office, many central bank governors and senior central bank policymakers tend to become more vocal in questioning the dominant role of commercial bank money in providing liquidity to households and firms. Consider, for example, Mervyn King’s 2016 book The End of Alchemy or Andy Haldane’s June 2021 speech. Stefan Ingves, until recently Governor of the Riksbank, provides another example. SUERF Policy Brief 1507 summarizes his remarks at a recent SUERF event as follows: His...

On VoxEU, Peter Howitt describes Ned Phelps’ lasting influence on modern macroeconomics. Much of modern macroeconomics was shaped by Edmund S. Phelps, who died this May. Ned’s pioneering efforts in developing a formal theory of the coordination mechanisms governing economic interactions led the way to a new kind of macroeconomics, one that was based on the interplay between the actions and expectations of individual actors, instead of being based on postulated relationships between macro...

In two Watson articles, Lara Knuchel summarizes the views of Swiss finance professors on the proposed tightening of UBS’s equity requirements, noting that only a small fraction of scholars affiliated with the Swiss Finance Institute responded to her inquiry. The former article also provides background on the Swiss regulatory debate.

VoxEU, March 6, 2026. HTML. Ultimately, the macroeconomic significance of CBDC is shaped by policy choices, and political economy determines whether CBDC becomes a significant factor. To understand CBDC policy, don’t just think macro — think political economy.

Annual returns and cumulative returns: Triangle. Some aggregate statistics: Text. The average (geometric mean) real annual return on equity in the period 1926–2024 is 5.6%. Statistics are based on SPI and BfS consumer price index data.

A new report by the Institut für Schweizer Wirtschaftspolitik describes who receives them. Report (in German).

Simon Grimm offers answers. They also shed light on why the Swiss—and many non-Swiss residents—enjoy such a high level of happiness. … banking and insurance make up only 9% of its GDP. … Neutrality and institutional stability surely explain part of Switzerland’s long-run growth. But there is another axis along which Switzerland differs from most of Europe: its economic governance is far more liberal.

Skip to content πάντα ῥεῖ Menu Recent Posts Former Central Bankers on Private vs. Public Money Creation Howitt on Phelps and Modern Macroeconomics Financial Times, Free Lunch Swiss Finance Professors on ‘Lex UBS’ “Digital Money—Barcelona Report 8,” CEPR, 2026 “Pricing...

An executive order issued on January 23, 2025, aims at protecting “Americans from the risks of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), which threaten the stability of the financial system, individual privacy, and the sovereignty of the United States, including by prohibiting the establishment, issuance, circulation, and use of a CBDC within the jurisdiction of the United States.” The executive order defines CBDC as “a form of digital money or monetary value, denominated in the national...