Monetary Policy
The ‘Politics’ of Policy Regimes
One casualty of any major economic crisis is that observers, if not policy makers, begin to fault the monetary regime in place. So it is with inflation targeting (IT).
The Obligations of Adjustment
Previous posts discussed the seemingly intractable challenge of getting an agreement on IMF governance reform and the relationship between the IMF and the G20 (here and here). The difficulties encountered in securing a consensus on IMF governance reform, it was argued, can be traced to the essential zero-sum game nature of quota reform.
Rust protection for economies?
At this time of year, after several months of snow and freezing rain, Canadians typically begin to worry about the effects of all of that road salt on their vehicles.
Despatches from the War Zone
Another jurisdiction marshalled its resources in preparation for war this week, as verbal volleys were exchanged and tensions increased in the ongoing dispute that is drawing more and more countries into potential conflict.
CIGI paper offers 17 recommendations for improved governance of international financial institutions
In a new CIGI paper, Distinguished Fellow Thomas A. Bernes warns that policy makers are in danger of missing an opportunity to rectify the long-standing weaknesses in international co-operation revealed by the current global financial and economic crisis.
Crocodile Tears?
In an earlier post I discussed the various pressures on central banks and threats to their independence. For the most part, however, central bankers shied away from bemoaning the state of affairs some of them find themselves in. This is changing. At the Allied Social Sciences Association conference held in January, there were two sessions on the topic of central bank independence.
Groundhog Day Reflections on IMF Reform
The previous post commented on the Yogi Berra —"it's deja vu, all over again" — quality to discussions on International Monetary Fund reform. To recap: discussions on IMF quota reform have had a certain recurring pattern to them; to secure IMF quota reform, the zero-sum game of quotas must be embedded in the broader, positive-sum game of preserving the remarkable system of international trade and payments that has been painstakingly erected over the past 70 years.
Yogi Berra on IMF Governance Reforms
CIGI, together with the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four (G24) and the Brookings Institution, organized a seminar on "pressing and future issues in IMF Reform and Options for their Resolution" at Brookings in Washington, D.C. Friday afternoon. It was, as the great American social philosopher Yogi Berra said, "deja vu all over again." A year ago (almost to the day) a similar seminar was organized at Brookings featuring many of the same participants, who said much the same thing.
Domenico Lombardi, Background
Domenico Lombardi is director of CIGI's Global Economy program, overseeing the research direction of the program and related activities. He also serves as Chair of The Oxford Institute for Economic Policy, Vice Chair of New Rules for Global Finance Coalition, and sits on the advisory boards of the Bretton Woods Committee in Washington, the G20 Research Group and the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto, and the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome. Mr. Lombardi is a member of the Financial Times Forum of Economists and editor of the World Economics Journal.
In the News
- An Activist or Pacifist G-7 at London Meeting?, Mark Crumpton, Bloomberg, May 10, 2013
- Sobel Plays Bad Cop to Treasury’s Lew as G-7 Debates Austerity, Ian Katz and Sandrine Rastello, Bloomberg, May 10, 2013
- A prescription for what ails France's economy, BNN, April 24, 2013
CIGI paper calls for better understanding of real financial links among international policy makers
International policy makers need to break their systemic complacency toward financial crises and improve their understanding of real financial links in the global economy, says a new paper from CIGI Senior Fellow Pierre Siklos.