Dan Hinge

Fun fact, Central Banking used to be based in Soho, in our more bohemian youth (2012)

Hassett retracts his admonition of the Fed economists: “The Fed’s independence extends to its research. It and it alone must decide what research to conduct to further its mission. The authors of this study are all excellent economists.” larrykotlikoff.substack.com/p/kevin-hass...

Really interesting. US graduates earn a huge amount more, despite similar skills at graduation, because they are graduating into a much more productive economy

Such a good piece today from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com which shows that the declining graduate premium is very much a UK problem rather than a general (or inevevitable) consequence of more people going to uni www.ft.com/content/649d...

Team central bank money! Though I have nothing against (well regulated) commercial bank money. Interesting to think about what level of regulation gives a similar level of reassurance about stablecoins. And do they need deposit insurance? Is that even possible given cross-border users?

And as front end interest rates (i.e., vig) fall, the incentive structures for stablecoin issuers to be somewhat more cavalier about both their assets and their liabilities (KYC etc) increase.

Interestingly hard to design a stable stablecoin that works as money. E.g. you back it fully with unremunerated reserves - oh dear, the business fails. Or you put on redemption gates - oh dear, it's not money any more.

Also bsky.app/profile/raja...

Basic idea - they need to hold a lot of short-term govt debt, even more soon due to regulations. So might shift the maturity structure of debt markets. At the same time, coins offer round-the-clock liquidity despite holding less liquid assets, which is a familiar story from e.g. money market funds

Economists warn of emerging ‘sovereign-stablecoin nexus’ - Central Banking Researchers model regulatory options as stablecoins become intertwined with core markets

I spoke with Marco Gross from the IMF about his work on how stablecoins might start to impact the structure of government bond markets www.centralbanking.com/central-bank...

Yeah true. They're diversified at least!

Assets = $193bn, of which 4.4% bitcoin = 8.5bn, minus the 24% BTC crash this year is 6.4 billion, a loss of about 2bn, or a third of the 6bn net equity. Ouch. Of course they may have sold BTC, and some other assets are probably up.

If my back-of-the-envelope maths is right, the bitcoin crash this year has wiped out about a third of Tether's net equity. Have I got a decimal place wrong? That seems nuts. Latest disclosure data here: tether.to/en/transpare...

Charts showing that most non-centrally cleared repos take place without haircuts

Super interesting FSB report out today with data on the repo market. Check out those haircuts - nearly three quarters at zero and 7% negative. Fill yer boots, as much leverage as you like!

www.fsb.org/uploads/P040...

we have that within which passes show on the post-literate world, the crassness of language and why Hamnet was always going to be hard to film. plus! what is 'just enough internet'? and the stationery renaissance

this is not about current events.

it's a bit about Hamnet and a lot about how hard it is to write about things that are too tender and sacred for language, and how the internet of video might make harder.

it's just about art, if you want some art today.

naomialderman.substack.com/p/we-have-th...

The Carney doctrine Open comment thread on the PM's Davos speech

Mark Carney's speech really is terrific: full text is here and very much worth your time.

Powell‘s words are clear and chilling.

The Fed can’t defend itself from the White House. The Senate and the courts will have to step up. Will they?

It's somehow both extraordinary that the Fed has put out this statement and that it has waited so long to fight back in public

Institutions can, in fact, stand up to the President.

Statement by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell YouTube video by Federal Reserve

Video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KckG...
www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

Financing the AI boom: from cash flows to debt

Y’all look like you a need a break from the news cycle. Why not read our new Bulletin on the how the financing of the AI boom is shifting from cash flow to debt financing!?

www.bis.org/publ/bisbull...

Who’s who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter A look inside Elon Musk’s big tent

🔥🔥🔥 www.ft.com/content/ad94...

“Tenth of December” “Wasn’t overcoming this feeling of fear what truly distinguished the brave?”

In case you weren't aware, yes, it is mandatory to read this George Saunders story today 📚 💙https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/31/tenth-of-december

As a journalist you’re always looking for ways to sum up the now, but the story is really often more incremental. This is from a Derbyshire county council paper. I was, inevitably, looking for “library to close” or “doge identified £Xm”, but the starting point is at least as important

Strongly believe in this kind of thing, which incidentally is a major theme of Pullman's The Rose Field, which I'm reading atm. Destroy the arts and you lose the ability to see the connections between all things.

Agreed! Zipcar seemed like a good answer to London's excessive number of cars. In my case, I only stopped because I had a baby, and while it's not impossible to put a carseat in a Zipcar, it is a huge faff. Still use bike/Tube for most journeys within London.

Great piece on the demise of Zipcar. I was surprised yesterday to receive an email from them saying they were closing down in London, but it seems I'm one of many who used to use them and now don't

Synchronisation can support tokenised securities settlement – BoE - Central Banking But central bank says it is unclear whether it outperforms unified ledger

Interesting mention from the BoE here that a unified ledger might work better than synchronisation for atomic settlement at large scale. But UL remains more challenging from a governance perspective www.centralbanking.com/fintech/7974...

You can go more basic, e.g. supply + demand = price, but really basic statements don't get at the point of economics, which is making people's lives better.

The essence of economics Why write about markets at all?

What is the "atomic fact" of economics? Interesting suggestions in Unhedged, here's my stab:

Technology and institutions are the basis of improved welfare.

www.ft.com/content/e196...