December, 2017

• 6 December

  Congress achieves the impossible on tax reform

  In their rush to pass something, anything, that they can call ‘tax reform,’ congressional Republicans have achieved the impossible: They have made an awful plan even worse. The first thing to note about the bill the Senate passed early Saturday is that it is not, by any reasonable definition of the term, tax reform. The elements of a smart reform ...

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• 6 December

  What central banks say about cryptocurrencies

  

  Eight years since the birth of bitcoin, central banks around the world are increasingly recognizing the potential upsides and downsides of digital currencies. The guardians of the global economy have two sets of issues to address. First is what to do, if anything, about emergence and growth of the private cryptocurrencies that are grabbing more and more attention — with ...

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• 6 December

  Who will fund clean energy? Familiar faces

  

  People who invest in the world’s energy systems often want to know how many trillions of dollars will be needed to finance renewable energy and natural gas. One way to find the answer is to look at what those who have already invested trillions of dollars want to happen as the world transitions to a lower-carbon power system and electrifies ...

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• 6 December

  Era of low volatility will unwind formulaically

  

  Sir John Templeton, the pioneer in global mutual funds, once said “the four most costly words in the annals of investing” are “this time is different.” That should resonate with monetary policy makers and institutional investors grappling with the causes, impacts and risks of the lowest market volatility, by far, in the era of modern finance. As this cycle of ...

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• 6 December

  India holds rates as inflation nears central bank’s target

  

  Bloomberg India’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged as rebounding inflation limits room to spur an economy struggling to recover from disruptive government policies. The benchmark repurchase rate was left at 6 percent, the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement in Mumbai on Wednesday. Five of the six-member monetary policy committee voted for the move, which was predicted ...

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• 6 December

  Bank Indonesia sees no need for policy move if CPI in target

  

  Bloomberg Bank Indonesia sees no reason to adjust monetary policy if inflation and the currency remain in line with its forecasts, Assistant Governor Dody Budi Waluyo said. Inflation is still within the central bank’s target and the currency is sta- ble, Waluyo said on a panel at Bloomberg’s Year Ahead Asia Conference in Jakarta on Wednesday. “As long as our ...

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• 6 December

  Hungary’s central bank joins ‘QE era’

  

  Bloomberg Hungarian central bankers are joining the quantitative easing (QE) era just as major global counterparts such as the US Federal Reserve look to leave it. The National Bank of Hungary will start buying mortgage-backed securities from January in its latest move to bring investors to heel and drive down interest rates. Departing from the approach of most small central ...

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• 6 December

  Nordea chief: Banker pay may fall when robots take over

  

  Bloomberg The chief executive officer of Nordea Bank AB says his industry needs to rethink pretty much everything it’s doing to brace for the future. And that includes how much it’s paying bankers. The Nordic region’s biggest financial conglomerate is already in the process of cutting 6,000 jobs as part of a shift towards relying more on technology and less ...

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• 6 December

  Plan to prevent banks from seducing regulators scrapped

  

  Bloomberg A high-profile plan to prevent federal watchdogs from getting too cozy with banks they are supposed to police has been scrapped by President Donald Trump’s newest Wall Street regulator. For years, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency intended to remove hundreds of examiners who work inside the offices of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and other ...

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• 6 December

  Bombardier stands against any Brexit border in Irish Sea

  

  Bloomberg Bombardier Inc., whose Belfast aircraft plant is Northern Ireland’s biggest manufacturer, said it’s against any moves towards a Brexit deal that would effectively redraw the UK-Ireland border in the Irish Sea. Rather than benefit from a settlement keeping the province in a customs union with the Irish Republic to preserve boundary-free travel, the Belfast site, which employs 4,200 people, ...

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