Hi. I haven’t been too active lately here. Been busy doing proper academic work like teaching and research. I may become more active next year, but I will stick to my principle that one doesn’t have to have an opinion, and vent it, about everything. Actually, the day where the news on TV announce that they cut their program short by 15 minutes due to lack of interesting news, or when a newspaper come in a short, cheaper edition during summer due to lack of important stuff to write about, then I will be happy.
Too many just write because they want to write, or have an obligation to write. Irrespective of whether there is anything substantive to write about. Ho-hum.
Nevertheless, next year will be interesting in central banking. We are in the midst of world-wide dire economic times with high unemployment and public debts on both sides of the Atlantic. So far, two basically different approaches have been tried out. The US goes with the academic prescriptions of signaling a commitment about the future policy, while in Europe, the ECB has come out as a fiscal player standing ready to bail out countries with high public debt (all in the name of living up to their monetary policy mandate as the mantra goes again and again).
We are not supposed to pick winners, but irrespective of the results, there will be interesting lessons to be learned. Happy New Year!
