A major factor behind this crisis is financialization of the system, with a growing disconnect between the monetary and the real sector. Some proponents of the Islamic finance claim such financial crisis would have been avoided, if asset-backed Islamic finance were adopted. However, while...

Bitcoin has enabled competition between digital cryptocurrencies and traditional legal tender fiat currencies. Despite rapidly increasing acceptance, so far the affirmation of cryptocurrency as better money has been thwarted by dramatic deflationary price instability. Successful at disposing of...

This study examines the history and operation of the Federal Reserve System (“the Fed”). It explores the Fed's origins in American economic history and emphasizes the political compromises that produced it. It seeks to provide an accessible explanation of how the Fed attempts to change the...

The aim of this article is to provide a discussion interface for historians and those that are in the present world of economics. The Global Financial Crisis set in motion a series of debates on the nature and scope of monetary policy. The role of monetary policy and the central bank since the...

Die britische Wirtschaft hat die weltwirtschaftliche Schwächephase relativ gut durchgestanden, das reale Bruttoinlandsprodukt erhöhte sich 2002 um 1,8%. Die Arbeitslosenquote ist mit 5,1% im Jahresdurchschnitt gegenüber 2001 nur gering gestiegen. 2003 dürfte das reale BIP um 1¾%...

Am 13. Dezember 2012 stellte das ifo Institut im Rahmen seines vorweihnachtlichen Pressegesprächs seine Prognose für die Jahre 2012 und 2013 vor. Die Weltkonjunktur hat sich seit der Mitte des vergangenen Jahres zunehmend abgekühlt. Dies machte sich, wenn auch in unterschiedlichem Ausmaß, in...

Using data for the Philippines, I develop and estimate a heterogeneous agent model to analyze the role of monetary policy in a small open economy subject to sizable remittance fluctuations. I include rule-of-thumb households with no access to financial markets and test whether remittances are...

We study the short-run effect of elections on monetary aggregates in a sample of 85 low and middle income democracies (1975 - 2009). We find an increase in the growth rate of M1 during election months of about one tenth of a standard deviation. A similar effect can neither be detected in...

We provide new evidence on the short-run effect of elections on monetary aggregates. We study month-to-month fluctuations in the growth rate of M1 in a sample of 85 low and middle income democracies from 1975 to 2009. The evidence shows an increase in the growth rate of M1 during election months...