Money & Finance – Money and more

All the good things a digital euro could do – and all the bad things it will

10. 11. 2020 | Few other documents have been sent to me as often as the recent deliberations of the European Central Bank (ECB) on a digital euro. There is obviously a great deal of suspicion with regard to plans of a digital euro. The following analysis will try to answer the question if this suspicion is justified.

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Book Review: An ECB manager on the long and successful history of monetary financing

May 21, 2020 | In his path-breaking history of central banking in Europe, a high-ranking manager of the European Central Bank shows central banking to be much older than the Anglo-Saxon historiography would admit, and that central banks have historically quite often served the purpose of financing public expenditure.

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Problems of Index Fund Capitalism

February 9, 2020 | If the trend of the last two decades continues, index funds could control 40 percent of the voting rights in the largest corporations by 2040.The share is already up to 25 percent in the US. There a two perspectives on this. Some scholars say it threatens shareholder value, others fear it will lead to too much of it. I side with the latter. …

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Breakfast with BlackRock & Co.

Jens Berger, editor of the popular progressive German Website “NachDenkSeiten”, has just published an eye-opening book on the power of the three asset management giants BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street (in German). I have obtained permission to publish the first chapter as an appetizer, which translates as “Breakfeast with BlackRock & Co.”….

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Wall Street comes to Cambodia’s microcredit sector

By Milford Bateman. One microcredit institution in Cambodia has in recent years been highlighted not just as a best practice example of the microcredit model in action, but as a leading example of ‘inclusive capitalism’ composed of ‘social enterprises’ that aim to do good in the community. Now AMK had been acquired for a cool $US150 million by the Taiwan-based Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank, one of Asia’s most aggressive financial institutions.What is making the former owners of AMK wealthy, is very bad news for its already suffering creditors.

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Bundesbank rejects 100%-money based on sophistry and false claims

In its April monthly report, Deutsche Bundesbank explains that banks create money ex-nihilo and rejects the proposal of 100%-money. The full English version is now online. The arguments employed to discredit 100%-money are a mix of sophistry and misleading or false statements.

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Bundesbank corrects textbook mistakes on money creation, rejects 100%-money

In the April-edition of their monthly report, the Bundesbank has belatedly joined the Bank of England in explicitly stating that the treatment of banks and money creation in most textbooks is wrong: banks are not intermediaries; they create money ex-nihilo. This helps the Bundesbank to reject criticism that central banks are currently “printing” too much money. At the same time, the Bundesbank rejects the proposal of 100%-money, i.e. bank deposits fully backed by central bank money.

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