The European Central Bank (ECB) plan to lower the official interest rate from 0.15% to 0.05% will not work. What’s the difference between 0.05% and 0.15%? Nothing. There will be no increase in requests or approvals for loans resulting from this 0.1% cut. In July 2012, after lowering the interest rates from 1% to 0.75%, Mario […]
On Principles and Taboos
Major financial crises have always left huge amounts of debt in their wake, followed by incidents of nonpayment. Occasionally the reduction of debt has been concealed, as in the case of Germany, which, thanks to an annual inflation that averaged 17% from 1913 to 1950, reduced the value of its domestic debt to almost zero. […]
Botín: The Man Who Revolutionized Banking
It is safe to say that Emilio Botín was an extraordinary person in every way. Without a doubt, the history of banking and the Spanish economy will surely bestow him a place of honor, no matter how the story is written. He had a decisive influence in shaping the history of the society in which […]
Don’t Trust What Economists Tell You
Because we economists tend to view reality through the lens of economic models, but I did enjoy one of John H. Cochrane’s comments in his blog “Macro debates, the oped.” For quite some time now, due to the recent crisis, I have been experiencing a lot of hesitation about these model-filtered visions. Cochrane, a University […]
U.S. Labor Market: Supply Matters
The recovery of the U.S. economy had appeared to achieve a breakthrough in the final quarter of 2013. The economy grew at an annual pace of 3.2 percent in the last quarter. But the economy contracted again the first quarter of this year. This weak recovery implies that more jobs have been lost in the […]
