Posted in Economics on May 8th, 2013 1 Comment »
Managing imbalances and rising indebtedness under a low interest rate environment Very low interest rates have now prevailed for a number of years and appear to be likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Given the duration of the easing period, a key question is whether monetary policy can still be considered as being counter-cyclical [...]
Posted in Economics on April 4th, 2013 1 Comment »
How do you write Scott Sumner Day in Japanese? Haruhiko Kuroda Day? The BOJ said it changed the target for money-market operations from the overnight call rate to the monetary base – cash in circulation and the money that financial institutions have on deposit at the central bank. It predicts the measure will grow to 270 trillion yen [...]
Posted in Economics on February 15th, 2013 No Comments »
A currency war is inevitable in the era of quantitative easing (QE). While the long-standing assertion by major central banks that the exchange rate is not a policy tool is pretty much true, there is a well-understood link between monetary policy and the strength of a currency. It is no mystery that the market expects [...]
Posted in Economics on February 7th, 2013 No Comments »
I am a supporter of regionalism. Despite whatever jokes I may have about the euro, I do not want to see its disintegration. While I have refined my opinion by stressing on the importance of having similar economies coming into a union instead of having a disparate set of economies with wildly different setups and [...]
Posted in Economics, Politics & government on December 18th, 2012 No Comments »
I do not understand the intricacies of Japanese politics. I simply do not follow it closely. But I do know that Japan can play a significant role in Asia, if it finally decides to take up that role, which it has not under the uncertain leadership of the Democratic Party of Japan. The DPJ wanted [...]
Posted in Economics, Society on November 26th, 2012 No Comments »
In the olden days when four-legged beasts were the best mode of land transportation, gold was money. Everyday transactions involved gold and other precious metals as the medium of exchange then, just as paper money now dominates transactions in the modern economy. Gold had a very special position in human culture then due to its fundamental [...]
Posted in Economics on November 1st, 2012 No Comments »
The United States Federal Reserve has come under criticism for its third round of quantitative easing – or QE3 – from many countries, especially emerging ones, who are concerned it will lead to the creation of asset bubbles that will cause problems within their economies. What will be the effect of this QE3 on Singapore’s [...]
Posted in Economics on September 14th, 2012 1 Comment »
Yes, it is. I haven’t seen anyone else say it yet, so I will. The Fed’s policy move today might not have happened — probably would not have happened — if not for the heroic blogging efforts of Scott Sumner. Numerous other bloggers, including the market monetarists and some Keynesians and neo Keynesians have been [...]
Posted in Economics on September 7th, 2012 1 Comment »
Yet just another day in the year of crisis monetary policy. And of course, yet another acronym to add to the alphabet soup. The acronym of the day is OMT. That stands for Outright Monetary Transaction. It is a unlimited but sterilized bond buying program aimed at keep yield of sovereign bonds down, with some [...]
Posted in Economics, Politics & government on August 27th, 2012 1 Comment »
I do not take hard currency idea seriously. Hard currency is a wacky idea. I generally think supporters of hard currency, gold standard advocates being the worst, as non-serious discussants of monetary policy. Hard currency is inflexible and it will exert unnecessary pain in time of crisis. If we had a hard currency all over [...]
The name is Hafiz Noor Shams.
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