Tag Archives: Notes

From The Economist’s Graphic detail:

In the FT, Martin Arnold reports about estimates by Fitch according to which European banks would have to raise up to €170bn of extra capital or sell almost €500bn of sovereign debt if regulators push ahead with plans to break the “doom loop” tying lenders to their governments … The European Commission and the European Central Bank support steps in that direction while some European governments oppose them.

In the FT, Jim Brunsden reports that the European Commission’s 2013 proposal to install a financial transaction tax has not made much progress. At least nine countries have to sign up. The report highlights that key differences remain on how to craft exemptions from the tax, including the problem of how to shield transactions in other non-participating EU countries such as Britain. Other splits concern how to protect market-making activities by banks, and also what carveouts should apply...

On the FT’s Alphaville blog, Matthew Klein reports about discrepancies between IMF and Greek (and EU) assessments of Greek net indebtedness. The IMF appears to report lower Greek financial asset holdings than the Greek Central Bank. Matthew Klein quotes the Greek Central Bank: We would like to clarify that the Bank of Greece compiles its financial accounts, from which data on the general government’s net debt are derived, according to European standards. The Bank of Greece’s data are...

From the FT.

The Economist reports about research by Steven Piantadosi and Celeste Kidd from the University of Rochester who tried to explain why humans tend to be intelligent. Their answer: Because human babies are extraordinarily helpless when compared with other animals. … human infants take a year to learn even to walk, and need constant supervision for many years afterwards [indeed]. That helplessness is thought to be one consequence of intelligence—or, at least, of brain size. In order to keep...

On VoxEU, Charles Calomiris and Matthew Jaremski discuss the origins of bank liability insurance. They argue that it is redistribution, not the aim to boost efficiency, which explains a lot of the action. … there are two theoretical approaches to explaining the creation and expansion of deposit insurance. The first is an economic approach grounded in potential efficiency gains from limiting bank runs (i.e. the public interest motivation). The second is a political approach grounded in the...

On his blog, John Cochrane happily reports about apparent agreement between Larry Summers and himself regarding the dangers of regulatory overkill and incompetence of government officials. John writes: This is a watershed. Here is the kind of reach out for middle ground that could unlock our political and economic sclerosis.  Larry is likely to be in government again sooner or later, and I hope he will push hard for this — and with more effect than the last hundred or so anti-red-tape and...

… by year, country and status, from the FT.

June 1st marks the official opening of the longest railway tunnel on Earth, cutting through the Alps. Official website. Profile of the rail track between Zurich and Lugano. Report about the contender.