Currency

Will Central Bank Digital Currencies Doom Dollar Dominance?

2021-08-15

Some say that issuance of central bank digital currencies will transform the international monetary status quo by eroding the US dollar’s dominance of cross-border payments and greatly reducing transaction costs. But this is not going to happen.

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Preventing a Stablecoin Liquidity Crisis

2021-08-09

There is no sound argument for applying lender-of-last-resort protection to privately issued cryptocurrencies. But regulators can prevent the all-too-predictable liquidity squeeze caused by a run on stablecoins...

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Scotland after Sterling

2020-10-19

Scottish advocates of leaving the United Kingdom need a plan for a new currency and an independent central bank...

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COVID Coin?

2020-08-08

The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the long-term shift away from cash, and monetary authorities risk falling behind. A recent report from the G30 argues that if central banks want to shape the outcome, they need to start thinking fast.

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The Wrath of Caesar

2020-06-11

The Makhlouf affair may accelerate a generalized collapse of Syrias economy and effective control over the country.

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Currency chaos, exploding prices and burning banks

2020-05-18

In Lebanon, the local currency has slumped to a record low, people are losing their jobs and the price of food is skyrocketing. Despite the threat posed by the coronavirus, hundreds are taking to the streets in protest. Julia Neumann reports from Beirut

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Coronavirus: Lebanon banks halt dollar withdrawals after pandemic closes airport

2020-04-01

US currency is imported into the country but Beiruts international airport is to remain closed until at least 12 April

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The COVID-19 Cash Out

2020-03-22

While Chinese authorities have been destroying banknotes that have potentially come into contact with the coronavirus, Western countries remain woefully behind not just in their response to the pandemic

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Can Iran Outlast Trump?

2019-12-11

Rather than attempting to beat Iran into submission with escalating economic sanctions, the international community should be attempting to guide it toward greater openness...

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The Digital Money Revolution

2019-11-16

The rapid pace and sheer scale of innovation in digital currencies and mobile payments indicates that a monetary revolution is forthcoming. The choice for governments

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How a Weaponized Dollar Could Backfire

2019-10-27

United States foreign policy under President Donald Trump continues to run counter to Americas traditional post-war objectives. Should the US carelessly relinquish leadership of the global multilateral order...

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Argentina Must Not Waste Its Crisis

2019-10-26

To explain Argentinas chronic instability and episodic illiquidity, one must look beyond idiosyncratic leaders, temporary external shocks, and specific policy mistakes.

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Locking China Out of the Dollar System

2019-10-23

By broadening the nexus between economic interest and national security, Trump is encouraging the decoupling of the worlds two largest economies and the emergence of a bipolar world order led by rival hegemons.

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Will Lebanese wait hours in gas lines as fuel crisis bites?

2019-09-30

Lebanese citizens are living day by day the repercussions of the dollar scarcity crisis, as the fuel sector threatens an open strike next week if the government fails to find a proper solution.

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Modern Monetary Realism

2019-03-26

Is Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) a potential boon to economic policymakers, or, as Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff recently argued

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The Case for a Bold Economics

2019-03-13

Although economists are well positioned to imagine new institutional arrangements, their habit of thinking at the margin and sticking close to the evidence at hand encourages an aversion to radical change...

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Iran pushes Iraq to maintain trade without US dollar

2019-01-06

Iran is exerting considerable pressure on the Iraqi government to compel it not to abide by the US sanctions that have been imposed on Tehran in order for it to change

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Can Turkey Rewrite the Crisis-Management Rules?

2018-08-18

Turkey is trying to rewrite the chapter on crisis management in the emerging-market playbook...

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Will Iran's economy collapse?

2018-06-30

Turbulent developments in the past few months on the foreign exchange and gold markets in Iran

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The Owl Thieves of Sweden

2018-06-07

As the country ditches cash, criminals turn to stealing owls.

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Why Reinvent the Monetary Wheel?

2018-05-25

Cryptocurrencies promise to realize Friedrich Hayek’s dream of a free market in money. But human societies have discovered no better way to keep the value of money roughly constant than by relying on central banks to exercise control over its issue

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The Old Allure of New Money

2018-05-23

The cryptocurrency revolution, which started with bitcoin in 2009, claims to be inventing new kinds of money

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Mullahs rig the price of moolah in Iran

2018-04-21

Iran looks ascendant in the Middle East, but its regime is messing up its own economy

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Is Bitcoin the Most Obvious Bubble Ever?

2017-12-11

The cryptocurrency is almost certainly due for a major correction. But its long-term value remains a mystery

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