‘Only one justification’ for fresh ECB QE, Libra: Practicalities, technology, and the future of payments
Wednesday 30 October 2019 – Vol.10 Ed.44.2
Commentary: Only one justification for fresh ECB QE
By Valentin Lazea in Bucharest
In November the European Central Bank will restart its quantitative easing programme. It has made several arguments to justify this decision: some transparent (feeble economic growth) and some veiled (over-indebtedness of some states, firms and households, and a need to stimulate euro area exports through currency depreciation). Of the possible reasons for continuing QE, only one – meeting the ECB’s inflation target of ‘below, but close to 2%’ – is endorsed both by statute and economic logic, however debatable it might be.
Read the full commentary on the website.
Podcast: Libra – Practicalities, technology, and the future of payments
.
Christian Catalini, co-creator of Libra and head economist at Calibra, and Teunis Brosens, lead economist for digital finance and regulation at ING, continue their discussion with OMFIF’s Bhavin Patel. In the second instalment of this series they address: whether existing technologies can meet Libra’s objectives; guaranteeing stability, security and convertibility; how the permissioned system will work and develop over time; and how global payments systems will transform over the next five years.
Listen to the recording, or search for OMFIF on your smartphone’s podcast app.
