BIS’s latest hunt for Zombie (firms)
In the latest BIS Quarterly Review, researchers Ryan Banerjee and Boris Hofmann consolidated some of the earlier research to illustrate the problem of zombie firms. They argued that the rise of zombies predated the 2008 financial crisis, and has since been dragging down the productivity of the real economy.
Why hadn’t Federal Reserve rescued Lehman Brothers in 2008?
This week, the trio who was directly responsible for the decision to let Lehman fail – Bernanke, Tim Geithner (then New York Fed President), and Hank Paulson (then Treasury Secretary) – joined together at a panel held by Brookings Institution and spoke about the lessons they had learned from the crisis.
Aging, Output Per Capita and Secular Stagnation
Gauti B. Eggertsson, Manuel Lancastre, and Lawrence H. Summers explain in their paper "Aging, Output Per Capita and Secular Stagnation" the role of aging in the Secular Stagnation model.
100% Reserve System is coming? – The Swiss Sovereign Money Referendum
The Swiss sovereign-money referendum, also known as the Sovereign-Money Initiative, which aims to creates a safe and crisis-free, yet experimental, banking system in Switzerland will be held on 10th June.
Cochrane responds to Sumner’s discussion on inflation stabilization regimes
Nothing would make us more proud than seeing intelligent and informed people discuss the ideas we have put forth in the interview series. So it is our great honor to know that there is...
What is Payment on Reserves Process?
The payment on reserve process proposed by Robert Hall and Ricardo Reis is a way of remunerating reserves which would give the central bank better control over the price level.The basic intuition is that...
What is the Saturated Level of Reserves?
The Saturated Level of Reserves or efficient level of reserves, is the point which the opportunity cost for banks to hold reserves disappears, and became indifferent towards holding more reserves. The reserve demand curve beyond this point becomes close to horizontal.
Central Bank’s Balance Sheet and the Rise of Reserves
The above figure shows the balance sheet of four major central banks from 2005 to 2015. Above the horizontal axis is the asset side of the balance sheet, below is the liability side. All...
Rajan on what “New Rule for Monetary Game” actually means
Raghuram Rajan, former Governer of Reserve Bank of India and now Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth, visited Hong Kong and gave a keynote speech in Asian Financial Forum last week. I am lucky...
Blanchard’s “Policy Model” v “Theory Model”
Back in November last year, Professor Olivier Blanchard discussed with me about his view that there should be four types of macroeconomics, and "theory models" like DSGEs is just one of them. Here is...
Interviews
DSGE model and the State of Macroeconomics | Q&A with Olivier Blanchard |
In this interview, Blanchard discussed his view on the role of DSGE model in modern Macroeconomics and policymaking. He also explained his decision to rewrite his macroeconomics textbooks after the Great Recession. His recent research on hysteresis was also discussed.
How to Reform the Federal Reserve System? | Q&A with Kocherlakota |
Welcome to the latest installment of our interview series “Where is the General Theory of the 21st Century?”“Where is the General Theory of the...
A Macroeconomic Earthquake | Q&A with Larry Christiano
In this interview, Prof Christiano shared his view on the development of post-2008 academic macroeconomics. We’ve asked Prof Christiano does he agree that modern macroeconomic models are too complicated for the general public, or even policymakers and if he agrees that economic models should be “simpler”. Does he think the recent revival of ISLM model a “good trend”? Should Macroeconomists hang on their faith in DSGE models? Should they explore alternative paths?
Economics Rules – Why Economists do it with Models | Q&A with Dani Rodrik
Rodrik explained why good economists think in terms of models, and what are major differences between models and theory.
He also told us why macroeconomists' quest to find "the one true model" on the business cycle is probably misguided.