ABSTRACT
The paper assesses whether Special Drawing Rights (SDR), namely international reserve assets and claims on freely useable currencies of its members created and allocated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are inflationary. This question has been already raised in the economic literature, but the paper does so by specifically analyzing its most recent and highest allocation in August 2021 on the one hand and its use by member countries to combat the COVID-19 crisis on the other. Moreover, the article revamps the logical-conceptual debate on the essence of money as issued by banks and what the IMF (which is not a bank) is monetarily speaking capable of.
ABSTRACT
There is significant economic literature investigating the hostility to cash or “war on cash” (Beretta 2005, 2007;Deutsche Bundesbank 2017;Jain 2017;Scott 2013;White 2018) by which financial institutions supported by governments discourage individuals from using (publicly issued) physical means of payments and convince them to move to digital (privately issued) ones. © Cato Institute. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Although COVID-19 pandemic has so far been assumed to have recessive-deflationary consequences due to the dramatic deterioration of economic forecasts worldwide, inflation risks cannot be excluded. What effects might result from the combination of billion-high liquidity injections and high decline in production levels as well as strict (and costly) security and protection requirements? And why should the term “inflation” be separated from “rising costs of living” from a macroeconomic perspective? By means of a logical-analytical approach, the following article also describes how in terms of economic policies such inflationary scenarios might be prevented. One thing is certain too: the relationship between natural disasters and inflation has always existed. Even more, if inflationary effects are—as today—only partially recognized. © 2021, The Author(s).
ABSTRACT
This short article addresses several important (but less discussed) aspects of the introduction of central bank digital currency that give cause for concern, no matter whether such a currency is intended as a substitute or a complement to cash. It discusses potential effects, such as bank runs and capital flight, and analyzes possible interactions between central bank digital currency and the limits on cash payments that already exist in several European countries. What are the structural characteristics that still make paper money and coins (the only means of payment directly issued by central banks) irreplaceable? These and other issues (including effects of COVID-19 on cash payment limits) are ex-plored through a discursive approach that is simultaneously grounded in rigorous mac-roeconomic analysis. © 2020, Duncker und Humblot GmbH. All rights reserved.