The IMF has published a new policy paper on banking supervision in Europe as part of its Staff Discussion Note series. The paper, titled "A Banking Union for the Euro Area," argues that a union is the logical conclusion of the idea that integrated banking systems require integrated prudential oversight. The case for a banking union for the euro area is both immediate and longer term.
Moving responsibility for potential financial support and bank supervision to a shared level can reduce fragmentation of financial markets, stem deposit flight, and weaken the vicious loop of rising sovereign and bank borrowing costs. In steady state, a single framework should bring a uniformly high standard of confidence and oversight, reduce national distortions, and mitigate the buildup of concentrated risk that compromises systemic stability. "Time is of the essence," the paper argues.
How to find the best tortillas while traveling in Mexico? Why is American food often so bad today? Is agribusiness good for the global economy? Prolific author, blogger and economist Tyler Cowen takes on these questions--and many more--in his new book, “An Economist Gets Lunch New Rules for Everyday Foodies.”
Cowen's economic approach to good food applies the following principle: “Food is a product of economic supply and demand, so try to figure out where the supplies are fresh, the suppliers are creative, and the demanders are informed.”
Interesting review in the latest Finance & Development magazine by Eric Rauchway, History Professor at the University of California at Davis, of the "The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order," by Benn Steil.
Rauchway says the book is marred by "far-reaching claims based on inadequate evidence," particularly about the role of White, who was a senior U.S. Treasury official now believed to have given intelligence clandestinely to the Soviet Union (a subject touched on by IMF historian James Boughton). The 1944 Bretton Woods conference laid the foundations of the modern international monetary system, but little was known about the exact proceedings of that historic gathering, until now. A U.S. treasury economist’s discovery of the original transcript of that meeting provides an insight into the characters and the intense debate surrounding the birth of two major international organizations. Listen to this podcast with Kurt Schuler Read the F&D books section.
New York Times review : "...should become the gold standard on its topic. The details are addictive. But be warned: the book is dense... Perhaps that is what is missing here — an unmistakable voice, a sense that this rich history is told by one mind. The book sometimes reads like a succession of brilliant but loosely connected graduate seminar papers — an assemblage, a very fine one, but an assemblage nevertheless."
Princeton History Professor Harold James’s Making the European Monetary Union combines a concise historical narrative of the events leading up to the European Monetary Union (EMU) with a thought-provoking account of its origin, performance, and problems. This in-depth history will appeal to academic readers looking for extensive details about the EMU."This fascinating and well-written book couldn’t be timelier," says LSE Fellow John Ryan. Full review here.
IMF Publications has agreed with Bookshare, a global online library for blind, vision impaired, learning disabled, and physically disabled readers, to make IMF books and other publications available through the program.
Bookshare makes publications accessible to those with a disability that makes it difficult for them to read a printed book. We have provided the online library with digital versions of all IMF publications and they in turn transform them into their ‘Daisy’ format which can be read using free software that reads the book aloud (text-to-speech) and/or displays the text of the book on a computer screen or Braille access device.
We are currently working with Bookshare to bring the Daisy files into the IMF eLibrary, so we can provide accessible books directly to our own subscribers.
Bookshare is a global online library for blind, vision impaired, learning disabled, and physically disabled readers to download into a variety of formats (Braille, synthetic speech, speech to text, large print).
Over 60 publishers have signed with Bookshare and are donating digital files, including all the major trade publishing houses (Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Scholastic) as well as top university presses (Cambridge, Chicago, Princeton, Columbia, California, NYU, Michigan, Stanford) and K-12 and post-secondary publishers. https://www.bookshare.org/
Two books from the IMF are putting the spotlight firmly on the big spending issues of our times in advanced economies and some emerging markets--health care and pensions. Health care reform is likely to remain a key fiscal policy challenge in both advanced and emerging economies in coming years. In the advanced economies, the health sector has been one of the main drivers of government expenditure, accounting for about half of the rise in total spending over the past forty years.
Aging populations
These spending pressures are expected to intensify over the next two decades, reflecting the aging of the population, income growth, and continued technological innovations in health care. Spending increases will come at a time when countries need to undertake fiscal consolidation to reduce public debt ratios in the wake of the global financial crisis. In the emerging economies, health care reform is also a key issue, given substantial lags in health indicators and limited fiscal resources. For these economies, the challenge will be to expand public coverage without undermining fiscal sustainability. The Economics of Public Health Care Reform in Advanced and Emerging Economiesprovides new insights into these challenges and potential policy responses, with cross-country analysis and case studies.
Pension reform is also high on the policy agenda of many advanced and emerging market economies. In advanced economies the challenge is generally to contain future increases in public pension spending as the population ages. In emerging market economies, the challenges are often different.
Where pension coverage is extensive, the issues are similar to those in advanced economies. Where pension coverage is low, the key challenge will be to expand coverage in a fiscally sustainable manner. The Challenge of Public Pension Reform in Advanced and Emerging Economiesexamines the outlook for public pension spending over the coming decades and the options for reform in 52 advanced and emerging market economies.
