Publications

Introduction The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) backstops the euro. Its nominal size is €705 billion but its lending capacity is lower at €500 billion, and the main condition attached to…

La Niña has gone, and El Niño is back. They are natural phenomena originating in the Pacific Ocean and affect the weather all around the world. La Niña cools global…

Gambling, alongside tobacco and alcohol, is often regarded as a vice. The main reason behind this view is that gamblers often overlook the full extent of the costs involved in…

UK Consumer Price Inflation remained at 8.7% in May. The Bank of England has raised the cost of overnight money to 5% via increases in its Base Rate, and has…

Is Newspeak just a piece of the dystopia imagined by Orwell, or is it a realistic representation of a typical ambition of political power, connected with the will to influence…

Since the beginning of March, US regulators have closed and sold three banks: Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic. The failures are the biggest to hit the US…

Introduction Central banks have undertaken many investigations, pilots and proofs-of-concept into Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), proving little beyond the lack of a convincing case in their favour, but unearthing…

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will soon become a major force in the economy, affecting nearly all aspects of production and consumption as well as the labour market. Many jobs which in…

In times of crisis, governments frequently express concern about the potential harm to consumers caused by price gouging, which involves charging unusually high prices for essential goods and services, particularly…

Ratings Agencies take notice of deteriorating finances Debt ratings agencies may not have the power they used to possess before the 2008 global financial crisis, but they still carry influence.…