The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
Also, central bank reserves don't circulate, so I'm not convinced "printing money" to accumulate foreign reserves to depress your exchange rate will "lead to inflation". If anything, it is an attempt to arrest deflation (explicitly in the case of Switzerland). But, if by depressing your currency you sustain your country's current account surplus (and Switzerland's is over 10% of GDP) then you get deflation anyway because a current account surplus is a drain on your money base. A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
I think you've got this backwards: the strategy would lead to increased reserve in foreign currency, but with more of the domestic currency on the open markets. So, provided that those who exchange currency for DM are interested in spending them, it could lead to inflation/reduced deflation.
Especially if the quantities are huge. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
Just look at Switzerland's last two years... A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
But if those foreigners were massively buying your domestic assets you wouldn't have a current account surplus.
The basic fact is that only the central bank for a given currency can perform LOLR functions for holders of debt denominated in that currency. It is important that this be done not so much for the sake of the bank but for the sake of the various derivative dealers that might be in departments of that bank.
The basic assumption of the assets being financed is:
Risk-less Asset = Risky Asset + Risk Insurance. or Risk-less Asset = Risky Asset + CDS + IRS + FXS
But risk insurance must be priced. If the derivative dealers in CDSs, IRSs and FX swaps are not supported in a crisis then they will not make markets. If they do not make markets risk insurance can no longer be priced and the risky assets get liquidated in a very disorderly and damaging fashion.
So it is the job of the Central Banks to provide liquidity as required until the panic is controlled. They effectively become dealers of last resort and have to begin to issue CDSs, IRSs and FXSs themselves and carry these instruments on their balance sheets. It is to be hoped that, seeing that they HAVE to perform such functions that they jointly agree to regulations that will make such an eventuality less likely. But that is very much a work in progress, if that is not too generous a term. Have a helping of Hopium. "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
It's looking increasingly likely that inflation is a fiscal, not a monetary phenomenon, as Chris Cook has been pointing out for a long time.
by Frank Schnittger - Sep 17
by Frank Schnittger - Sep 10 3 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Sep 1 6 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Sep 3 32 comments
by Oui - Sep 6 3 comments
by gmoke - Aug 25 1 comment
by Frank Schnittger - Aug 22 57 comments
by Oui - Sep 171 comment
by Oui - Sep 154 comments
by Oui - Sep 151 comment
by Oui - Sep 1315 comments
by Oui - Sep 13
by Oui - Sep 124 comments
by Oui - Sep 1010 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Sep 103 comments
by Oui - Sep 10
by Oui - Sep 92 comments
by Oui - Sep 84 comments
by Oui - Sep 715 comments
by Oui - Sep 72 comments
by Oui - Sep 63 comments
by Oui - Sep 54 comments
by gmoke - Sep 5
by Oui - Sep 47 comments
by Oui - Sep 49 comments