This lecture discusses the work by the Estonian economist Ragnar Nurkse (1907-1959). It focuses on the early Nurkse, who was concerned with exchange rates, capital flows and what today we call the international financial architecture. It asks how many of the conclusions of International Currency...

This article examines the monetary arrangements between Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom from the 1820s to the 1930s. It is argued that the three countries formed a monetary union for most of this period. A new analysis of inland and London exchange rates demonstrates that the union...

This article looks at the hitherto little-studied transatlantic cooperation between central and commercial banks after the "Nixon shock" of August 1971 and investigates the specific areas and dimensions of their interactions. Using the example of Deutsche Bank and its board member Alfred...

This article introduces the problematic situation of the great German banks and some non-German banks during the so-called second globalization since the 1970s. It formulates the questions that should be answered in the following contributions, each for a particular bank or group of banks. The...

The article examines the genesis, perception and handling of the staffing and governance problems of Deutsche Bank, which stemmed from its entry into international investment banking in the mid-1980s and which have remained virulent into the bank's recent past. Why was it not possible to prevent...

Since the open-up policy at the end of the 1970s, China - the largest single market in Asia - received growing attention from foreign investors and banks. However, the fragile domestic market and undeveloped financial system in China did not allow a rapid inflow of foreign banks, given that the...

Recent research in economic history has found that mortgage debt in relation to GDP has taken off in the historical long run ("great mortgaging"), as growing banking assets have been redirected into mortgage credit. This paper maps the parallel long-run investment history of private (life)...

Seit vier Jahren kämpfen die Staaten des Euroraums gegen die Hinterlassenschaften der schweren Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise an. Aber noch immer steigen die Schuldenquoten. Für die Krisenstaaten des Euroraums wurde zwar mit Rettungspaketen und Niedrigzinsen "Zeit erkauft". Aber solange sich die...

Based on a sample of 87 countries, this paper shows that non-financial institutions, specifically rule of law, do matter for the relative merits of bank-based and market-based financial systems. Market-based systems work better in low rule of law countries, while bank-based systems are more...