Max debates with Director of IMF Europe on Monetary System
Today Cobden Centre manager Max Rangeley will give a speech and then have a debate with the Director of IMF Europe at the first…
Read MoreBanking
The Looming Crisis in the Private Provision of Public Services Close Parallels with the Systemic Failure of Banks
The collapse in January of Carillion PLC, the UK’s second largest construction and outsourcing company has attracted considerable media coverage. Carillion was principally engaged…
Read More
Should bank regulation be relaxed?
Leading Federal Reserve policymaker Stanley Fischer has hit out at plans to unwind banking regulation, calling it a “terrible mistake.” President Donald Trump and…
Read More
The 2017 Stress Tests: Are US Banks Really in Good Shape?
“… equally efficacious, and equally a hoax.” – Benjamin Disraeli, 1848[1] One of the highlights of the U.S. summer for Fed watchers is the annual ritual…
Read MoreAnother Reason Not to Believe the Bank of England’s Stress Tests
The Bank of England repeatedly reassures us that its stress tests demonstrate the resilience of the UK banking system. Well, let’s put the…
Read MoreHow Onerous Are Basel III’s Constraints On Bank Leverage?
It is generally acknowledged that high bank leverage was a key factor contributing to the severity of the Global Financial Crisis. For the UK,…
Read More
Are Bank Capital Requirements Really Ten Times Higher Than Before The Crisis?
A major theme in Bank of England speeches over the last three years has been the ‘Ten Times’ story: bank capital requirements are now…
Read MoreTHE FICTION OF THE ‘GREAT CAPITAL REBUILD’
The central element of the Bank of England’s narrative on the UK banking system is the ‘Great Capital Rebuild’. To paraphrase Governor Carney’s comments…
Read MoreDebts, Bastiat and modern economics
There is a well-worn conundrum told about a stranger, who walks into the hotel in a remote, sleepy village in Mexico, and reserves a…
Read More
Business cycles are credit cycles
This article gets to the heart of why central banks’ monetary policy will never succeed. The fundamental error is to regard economic cycles as…
Read More