Attention Economy


Monday, February 24, 2014

Fed's Asymmetric Behavior


NGARIE WOOD and GEOFFREY GERTZ of Oxford University argue for a more internationally oriented Fed:

CNBC Interview - RBI Chief Raghu Rajan



Meanwhile,
Niranjan Rajadhyaksha observes:
“ … It must be remembered that the unconventional monetary policy that the US has pursued since 2009 is part of a broad global stimulus programme put in place by the heads of important governments after the world economy was nearly brought to its knees after the global financial crisis. This is what the joint statement of leaders of 20 nations after their April 2009 meeting in London said: “We will conduct all our economic policies cooperatively and responsibly with regard to the impact on other countries and will refrain from competitive devaluation of our currencies and promote a stable and well-functioning international monetary system.”

The emerging markets are essentially complaining that the spirit of cooperation that was central to the stimulus should also be part of the exit strategy. The US is behaving in an asymmetric manner. There is also enough empirical evidence that unconventional monetary policy pursued by the Western central banks has indeed had an impact on emerging market economies through pro-cyclical capital flows, currency appreciations and asset price bubbles. The opposite effect—currency depreciations and falling asset prices—are thus inevitable risks during the ongoing QE taper.”