Tag Archives: money and banking

In terms of the the general case concerning contemporary banking, the basic constraint on lending, by which banks create "money"* by crediting deposit accounts (bank liability) and debiting loan accounts (bank asset), is the availability of creditworthy borrowers. This population is flexible based on, financial and economic conditions, bank credit standards, and government policy and regulation. All of these may change over the cycle. Price of assets rise to the degree that banks are...

It is indeed strange since "money" as a unit of account is basic for quantitative measurement in economics and finance. Moreover, economic activity involving production, distribution and consumption of real good is dependent of finance in the creation of "money" in a monetary production economy. "Money" and finance are hidden assumptions in economics that constitute foundations of the framework for economic activity and therefore economics. They are for the most part unexamined, and...

Some of the most interesting of that new work is from, and about, central banks. As an example, here is a remarkable speech by BIS economist Claudio Borio. I am not sure when I last saw such a high density of insight-per-word in a discussion of money and finance, let alone in a speech by a central banker. I could just say, Go read it. But instead I’m going to go through it section by section, explaining what I find interesting in it and how it connects up to a larger heterodox vision of...

Our evidence suggests that banks were arbitraging the SLR (and eSLR) rule by shifting from safer assets toward riskier, higher-yielding ones. Evidence from other studies we discuss point to the same behavior by banks or dealers with portfolios heavily weighted toward safe, low-yield assets as part of their business models. Policymakers are aware of this regulatory arbitrage and are addressing it. FRBNY — Liberty Street EconomicsLeverage Rule Arbitrage Dong Beom Choi, Michael Holcomb, and...

Cutting out the middleman without using blockchain currency.TruthDig!Banks Are Becoming Obsolete in China—Could the U.S. Be Next? Ellen Brown

David Andolfatto recently published "Reconciling Orthodox and Heterodox Views on Money and Banking," which discusses the theoretical split between recent mainstream thinking and heterodox views on banking. From my perspective, he is addressing heterodox critiques of mainstream thinking that I am not particularly interested in; in fact, based on his criteria, I would be closer to "mainstream" than "heterodox" -- as would possibly be Hyman Minsky. I would view the problem with mainstream...

The paper analyzes briefly the changing ideas on the role of money and banks from William Petty to Thomas Tooke, including the works of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Karl Marx. It analyzes the role of ideas in shaping the evolution of central bank regulation. Particular importance is given to the Bank of England’s inconvertibility period, from 1797 to 1821, and the ensuing debate in shaping Robert Peel’s Bank Act of 1844, which is often seen as the birth of modern central banking. The...

This is the second in a series of blog posts on financing infrastructure assets. Multiplier EffectBanks, Capital Markets, and Institutional Investors as Providers of Long-Term Finance Felipe Rezende | Director, Economics and Finance Program, Bard College and Research Fellow, The Levy Economics Institute

Housing finance is interesting, and offers an interesting take on some theoretical issues. Although the theoretical issues sound abstract, they are critical issues in economies facing a housing bubble. This article looks at one aspect of housing finance: the limit to financing is credit risk, not funding. Monetary flows in a credit-based economy are circular. Bond Economics Housing Bubbles And Their Financing Brian Romanchuk

I was running late yesterday and the blog post was already rather long so I left some matters concerning central banks for today. The question we address briefly today is what is the role of central banks in all these trade transactions. Does an export surplus country face an ever increasing money supply as central banks provide the counterparty service to traders who sell in a foreign currency but want their own currency (such as a manufacturer who incurs costs in say Yen but sales revenue...