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Are central banks planning their own cryptocurrencies?

  “Do Central Banks Intend to Launch Central Bank Digital Currencies?” By Gordon Kerr, Cavin O’Driscoll and Enrico Colombatto, courtesy of IREF   A substantial and growing amount of press attention has been devoted to the subject of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) since last year’s announcement of Libra which spooked regulators at central banks who are […]

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Bank of England tackles climate change with protective mountain of paper

  “Central Banks’ Varied Approaches to the Financial Risks of Climate Change” By Gordon Kerr, Cavin O’Driscoll, and Enrico Colombatto, courtesy of IREF   As the momentum has built behind calls for policy responses towards climate change, the ECB and the Bank of England have not been the quickest central banks to act. Back in […]

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“This is a mess”: QE isn’t working – and neither is government

  By Erik Sass, TES Editor-in-Chief   Collectively and individually the countries of Europe face economic problems that they are either unwilling or unable to confront due to a lack of political courage, despite the availability of effective remedies. That was the bleak takeaway from a panel discussion of economic and political experts at the […]

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Will Blockchain Undermine Central Bank Control – Or Amplify It?

By Erik Sass, TES Editor-in-Chief     Since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009 cryptocurrencies have proliferated, powered by blockchain technology using distributed computing platforms. Many have grown with the belief that they will remain free from the control of central banks and treasuries, thus providing an alternative to fiat currencies, whose value may change […]

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Central banks need to tell everyone to suck it up

                          While monetary policy has an important role to play in combating economic downturns, central banks have assumed an outsized importance at the expense of other policy options, writes Dr. Michael Ivanovitch in a commentary for CNBC, arguing that central bankers need to […]

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UK savers, prepare to be screwed by even lower interest rates

                    With a fresh wave of economic uncertainty gripping Europe and the rest of the world, central banks are considering lowering interest rates even further, and in the UK that means they may soon be heading towards 0% — raising a big question for British savers, […]

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What Could Possibly Go Wrong? More Politicians Meddling With Central Banks

  It’s not like politicians mucking with credit ever resulted in disaster before, right? RIGHT? Well anyhoo, it’s happening again, as politicians of all stripes and convictions (or lack thereof) lay siege to central banks with the help of pundits and other economic experts. That prompted a moderately alarming warning from ratings agency Fitch, which […]