Tag Archives: ECB

I always find the views of former policymakers fascinating, not least because of their tendency to become much more outspoken once they are out of office. Some express much more radical views than they did while in office: Larry Summers springs to mind, and Adair Turner. Others become critical of the institutions that they ran: Mervyn King, for example. The latest former policymaker to reveal what he really thinks is Vítor Constâncio, Vice President of the ECB from 2010 to 2018. In a...

… as Neil Schirmer in The Alchemists (especially Chap. 11) documented, the crucial move that halted the collapse of the euro and the threat of a fullout global collapse was a set of swaps the Fed pulled off that led to it taking about $600 billion of Eurojunk from the distressed European banks through the ECB onto the Fed balance sheet. These troubled assets were gradually and very quietly rolled off the Fed balance sheet over the next six months to be replaced by mortgage backed...

The Europhiles have been tweeting their heads off in the last week or so thinking that the corner has been turned – by which they mean that Germany is about to get all cuddly with France and agree to fundamental shifts in thinking which will make the dysfunctional Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) finally workable, without the need for the ECB to break Treaty law by propping up the private bond markets. The most recent incarnation of the ‘saviour’ is a few words that the new German Finance...

The European Central Bank has dropped its long-standing pledge to boost stimulus if conditions deteriorate, signalling the triumph of German-led hawks and marking a major turning point in the eurozone’s monetary regime. The approaching end to the QE-era pulls away the protective shield for Italy and the high-debt Latin states, and for thousands of “zombie companies” kept afloat on monetary life-support. Italy is the lynchpin of the euro. If Italy fails, the EZ fails. Stay tuned.The...

Taken from a short interview with Greece’s Banking News.  Q. According to the IMF, Greece’s debt isn’t manageable in the long-run without being either extended or forgiven. Where do you stand towards this claim? How important is the Greek debt relief? Michael Hudson — On Finance, Real Estate, and the Powers of NeoliberalismGreek debt updateMichael Hudson | President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research...

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi took a swipe at Washington on Thursday for talking down the dollar, a move he said threatened a decades-old pact not to target the currency and might force his bank to change its own policy. ReutersECB hits out at Washington for talking down the dollarBalazs Koranyi, Francesco Canepa

Central bank "independence." Say again?Oh, right. Central bank independence means political indolence of technocrats from influence or intrusion on the part of elected representatives. It has nothing to do with influence by financial industry cronies.Real-World Economics Review BlogThe curious silence of the British media regarding Mark Carney and the secretive G30 Norbert HäringAlsoJean-Claude Trichet cannot be chairman of the ECB’s ethics committee any longer

Germany looks to the future. Uncle Sam won't be pleased. HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver, speaking at the same conference in Hong Kong, said that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will increase the usage of RMB even further. China’s central bank announced new measures earlier this month to encourage cross-border yuan transactions in support of BRI projects. Asia TimesGerman central bank to add RMB to currency reserves: Follows ECB’s move to include China’s currency last year

By Marc Chandler (originally posted at Marc to Market) The investment climate is being shaped by two powerful forces.  First is the very accommodative policy stance. This includes the United States, where despite delivering the fifth rate hike in the cycle, adjusted by headline CPI, remains negative. As the balance sheet has begun being reduced, financial conditions in the US are easier now...

One of the major claims the founders of the EMU made was that by creating an independent ECB – by which they meant ‘independent’ of the influence from the Member States or other EU bodies (such as the Eurogroup) – they were laying the foundations of financial stability and disciplining the fiscal policy of the Member States. This so-called independence was embodied in the – Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union – where Article 123 prevents the ECB from giving “overdraft facilities...