That's Interesting
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IMF Working Paper – Enabling Deep Negative Rates to Fight Recessions: A Guide
30th May, 2019“The experience of the Great Recession and its aftermath revealed that a lower bound on interest rates can be a serious obstacle for fighting recessions. However, the zero lower bound is not a law of nature; it is a policy choice. The central message of this paper is that with readily available tools a central bank can enable deep negative rates whenever needed—thus maintaining the power of monetary policy in the future to end recessions within a short time.”
External Link: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/04/29/Enabling-Deep-Negative-Rates-A-Guide-46598?cid=em-COM-123-38721 -
NPR Planet Money: The Problem With Banning Plastic Bags
30th May, 2019“For decades, plastic bags have been staples at grocery stores. They also clog drains, cause floods, litter landscapes and kill wildlife. Consequently, a growing number of cities and counties have passed laws that ban or tax plastic bags in the past ten years. But as our colleague Greg Rosalsky explored in a recent Planet Money newsletter, banning plastic bags may be worse for the environment.”
External Link: https://www.npr.org/2019/05/08/721542495/the-problem-with-banning-plastic-bags -
Tariffs on China are no substitute for a trade deal
30th May, 2019Podcast Episode: “In a special episode of Dollar and Sense, Senior Fellow David Dollar provides an update on the state of U.S.-China trade talks following the latest round of negotiations in Washington this week.”
External Link: https://www.brookings.edu/podcast-episode/tariffs-on-china-are-no-substitute-for-a-trade-deal/?utm_campaign=Brookings%20Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=72568261 -
NPR Planet Money Podcast: Will China Overtake The US?
30th May, 2019“It seems inevitable that eventually China will have a bigger overall economy than the United States.
George Magnus doesn’t agree. He’s an academic and the author of a book about China called Red Flags: Why Xi’s China Is in Jeopardy. And he says there are three reasons why China’s rise to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy is not inevitable.”
External Link: https://www.npr.org/2019/05/09/721881130/will-china-overtake-the-us -
Assessing Abenomics: Evidence from Inflation-Indexed Japanese Government Bonds
30th May, 2019Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco paper assessing the impact of news concerning the reforms associated with “Abenomics” using an arbitrage-free term structure model of nominal and real yields.
External Link: https://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/working-papers/2019/15/?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=working-papers -
David Rumsey Map Collection
30th May, 2019The Rumsey Collection contains over 91,000 images spanning five centuries of cartography and is available to access digitally online for free.
External Link: http://www.openculture.com/2019/05/download-91000-historic-maps-from-the-massive-david-rumsey-map-collection.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29 -
North Korea: The Grand Tour
30th April, 2019‘Photographs of ordinary and yet extraordinary life in the last communist state from an ideological, political and cultural perspective’
External Link: https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/travel/carl-de-keyzer-north-korea-grand-tour/ -
San Fran Fed: Does the Fed Know More about the Economy?
30th April, 2019‘In assessing the current or near-term state of the economy, forecasts from Federal Reserve staff seem to provide little additional information to improve commercial forecasts. However, Fed forecasts for economic growth a year or more in the future substantially enhance the accuracy of private-sector forecasts.’
External Link: https://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economic-letter/2019/april/does-fed-know-more-about-economic-forecasts/ -
A Photo Journey Across Africa With Ostinato Records
30th April, 2019‘For the last three years, Ostinato Records has been reissuing lost classics of African music. Their journeys take them across the continent, tracking down the original artists via a network of tips and personal connections. Here, label founder Vik Sohonie brings us along for the journey, traveling to cassette shops and recording studios in search of rare gems.’
External Link: https://daily.bandcamp.com/2019/04/08/ostinato-records-photo-gallery/?utm_source=notification -
Household Debt, Consumption, and Monetary Policy in Australia
30th April, 2019‘This paper discusses the evolution of the household debt in Australia and finds that while higher-income and higher-wealth households tend to have higher debt, lower-income households may become more vulnerable to rising debt service over time.’
External Link: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/04/05/Household-Debt-Consumption-and-Monetary-Policy-in-Australia-46685?cid=em-COM-123-38611