Money Capital: New Monetary Principles for a More Prosperous Society
By: Patrick Bolton, Haizhou Huang – Imperial College London, PBoC School of Finance and Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance
In this book, leading economists Patrick Bolton and Haizhou Huang offer a novel perspective, viewing monetary economics through the lens of corporate finance. They propose a richer theory, where money can be seen as the equity capital of a nation, playing a similar role as stocks for a company. This innovative framework integrates the real and monetary sides of the economy, with a banking sector and debt at its core.
In the financial world, companies issue new shares only if it results in some kind of value creation; this is a basic principle of corporate finance that Bolton and Huang argue can be applied to monetary economics. When the government increases the money supply to finance positive net value investments—when it prints money to keep the economy going—it increases output, not inflation. This is evidenced by the strong growth in GDP and money in China over the last four decades, and in the United States during World War II. The effect of increasing money supply, they argue, depends on how money enters the system and what the money buys. The principles outlined by Bolton and Huang shed new light on a range of issues, including inflation, monetary and fiscal policy, central banking, money and growth, and the international monetary system.
Taming the Cycles of Finance? Central Banks and the Macro-prudential Shift in Financial Regulation
By: Matthias Thiemann – Sciences Po Paris
Macroprudential regulation is a set of economic and policy tools that aim to mitigate risk in the financial and banking systems. It was largely developed in response to the financial crisis of 2007-08, turning central banks into de facto financial policemen. Taming the Cycles of Finance traces the post-crisis rise of macroprudential regulation and argues that, despite its original aims, it typically supports finance in times of crisis but fails to curb it in times of booms. Investigating how different macroprudential frameworks developed in the UK, the USA and the Eurozone, the book explains how central bank economists went about building early warning systems to identify fragilities in the financial system. It then shows how administrative and political constraints limited the effects of this shift, as central banks were wary of intervening in a discretionary manner and policymakers were opposed to measures to limit credit growth.
May Contain Lies – How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases—And What We Can Do about It
By: Alex Edmans – London Business School
Our lives are minefields of misinformation. It ripples through our social media feeds, our daily headlines, and the pronouncements of politicians, executives, and authors. Stories, statistics, and studies are everywhere, allowing people to find evidence to support whatever position they want. Many of these sources are flawed, yet by playing on our emotions and preying on our biases, they can gain widespread acceptance, warp our views, and distort our decisions. Going beyond simply checking the facts and explaining individual statistics, Edmans explores the relationships between statistics—the science of cause and effect—ultimately training us to think smarter, sharper, and more critically. May Contain Lies is an essential read for anyone who wants to make better sense of the world and better decisions.
A fascinating account of how to navigate through lies and misleading statistics to arrive at a reasonable approximation of the truth. A valuable aid to make sense of our confusing world.
Raghuram G. Rajan, University of Chicago
The Macroeconomics of Decarbonisation Implications and Policies
By: Grégory Claeys, Marie Le Mouel, Simone Tagliapietra, Guntram B. Wolff, Georg Zachmann – Bruegel, German Council on Foreign Relations
Decarbonisation is the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions using low carbon power sources, lowering output of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. This is essential to meet global temperature standards set by international climate agreements. To limit global warming to 1.5°C, hence avoiding the worst-case scenarios predicted by climate science, the world economy must rapidly reduce its emissions and reach climate neutrality within the next three decades. This will not be an easy journey. Shifting away from carbon-intensive production will require a historic transformation of the structure of our economies. Written by a team of academics linked to the European think tank Bruegel, The Macroeconomics of Decarbonisation provides a guide to the macroeconomic fundamentals of decarbonisation. It identifies the major economic transformations, both over the long- and short-run, and the roadblocks requiring policy intervention. It proposes a macroeconomic policy agenda for decarbonisation to achieve the climate goals of the international community.
If you ever dreamed to understand what economists think and know about climate policies without the technicalities, here is the book you absolutely need to read! It is clear, comprehensive and powerful.
Christian Gollier, Toulouse School of Economics
