Rethinking liquidity: A critical macro-finance view

This forum contribution critically rethinks the macro-financial approach to liquidity by focusing more explicitly on its public-private hybrid dimension. To do so, it introduces the notion of a ‘liquidity regime’: a heuristic device aimed at tracking the ensemble of social relations and institutions that govern the coherence of the payments system at any given time. A key insight that emerges from this approach is that the ability to make markets and access liquidity is never neutral or apolitical. What requires closer attention, therefore, is precisely how the interaction between public authorities and private market participants affords some actors greater leverage in shaping the financial system

The Emerging Role of E-Agribusiness - State of the Art and Perspectives in Germany

The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the emerging role of electronic agribusiness and the corresponding consequences in Germany. The study was carried out as a consecutive step by step procedure, including empirical surveys in farm and agribusiness small and medium size enterprises, accompanied by case studies in agribusiness firms, and a technology assessment expert survey. The results indicate that internet penetration on farm and agribusiness enterprise levels is rather high, but currently information and communication activities clearly dominate over commercial business activities. The case studies show that the internal communication changed significantly due to the implementation of internet applications like emailing, newsgroups, periodic information sheets and video-conferencing. Additionally, external communication changes according to the availability of internet features, e.g. suppliers of parts established internet networks for co-ordinated sales activities. The technology assessment expert survey indicates a gain in importance for pre- and after-sales services and communication activities by using internet technologies. Conclusions are - among others - an increasing importance of e-agribusiness and correspondingly an acceleration of structural change, but low or no expected effects on ecological parameters and on the labour market.E-Business, E-Agribusiness, Technology assessment, Survey, Germany, Agribusiness,

The macrofinancial turn in central banking : money market changes and Federal Reserve policy after the global financial crisis

Following the global financial crisis, the Federal Reserve has taken on broader responsibilities in macroeconomic management and financial stability policy. While the existing literature has tended to analyse these new functions separately, I bring them together at the level of money market strategy. To that end, the thesis analyses the impact of the Fed’s expanded money market footprint between 2008 and 2020. I show how questions of liquidity governance impart important shortcomings on the central bank’s overall money market strategy. As monetary policy, fiscal policy, and financial stability imperatives become increasingly entangled in the organisation of market liquidity, they impose conflicting demands on central bank policy that cannot be easily reconciled within existing policy frameworks. As the result of this impasse, the Federal Reserve has generally pursued a hands-off approach to complex policy issues, notably by relying on its market-accommodating rather than market-shaping capacities, or what is now increasingly called a de-risking strategy. In raising questions about potential contradictions built into the Fed’s macrofinancial policy framework, the thesis highlights the politics that inhere in the organisation of highly technical market interventions. To explain the transformation of Fed policy, I draw on two conceptual developments. First, I employ a critical macrofinance lens to view the quintessential task of central banking not simply as reacting to changes in inflation with interest rate measures, but more broadly as ensuring a certain level of liquidity within the system. Analytically, this shifts the focus of attention away from the central bank’s role in affecting macroeconomic aggregates—such as inflation, employment, or growth—and towards a macrofinancial understanding of the interactions between central banks and private finance. Second, and drawing on this approach, I link transformations in market microstructure to macro-level transformations in central banking by analysing how central bankers problematise the role and governance of liquidity within financial markets. I show that while liquidity continues to be understood primarily as a technical question of ensuring stability within the financial system, the governance of liquidity entails highly political questions of market organisation that shape how policymakers navigate and negotiate the contradictions between various policy interests

Critical macro-finance: An introduction

Critical macro-finance (CMF) has become an influential avenue of research aimed at shedding light on how the global payments system is governed. In the introduction to this special forum on CMF, we explore three main themes: (1) the intellectual lineage of CMF and its relation to financialisation studies; (2) the policy relevance of CMF; and (3) its ‘critical’ position

After the allocation : what role for the special drawing rights system?

In August 2021, the IMF made a new SDR allocation to help ease pandemic-induced financial strains in the Global South. This paper assesses the potential of the SDR system to address debtrelated problems in global finance. We analyze the SDR system as a web of interlocking balance sheets whose members can use SDR holdings—the system’s tradable assets—for conversion into usable currency as a perpetual low-interest loan or to make payments to each other. Using original IMF data, we study how the system has been practically used since 1990. Though widely perceived as a solution in search of a problem in the post-Bretton Woods era, we find that the SDR system provides three mechanisms through which IMF members borrow and lend usable currency to each other, with different strings attached: first, transactions by agreement; second, the IMF’s core lending facilities for which the SDR system offers additional resources; and third, IMF-sponsored Trusts which seek to harness the SDR system for development purposes and are the basis for the current idea of ‘voluntary channeling’. Overall, given the SDR system’s idiosyncratic accounting rules, the new allocation can improve the liquidity position of a country and offer some limited avenues for sovereign debt restructuring but comes with new interest and exchange rate risks. Voluntary channeling cannot happen without a wealth transfer, neither the SDR allocation nor the use of Trusts can overcome this problem. Still, Trusts can be a useful instrument to help with debt forgiveness and to ensure that borrowed funds are used for their intended purpose

International monetary hierarchy through emergency US-dollar liquidity : a key currency approach

The notion that the international monetary system is hierarchical has become increasingly common, but the nature, causes, and shape of international monetary hierarchy remain vague. In this article, we develop a monetary theory of international hierarchy based on the “key currency” approach. We perceive the international monetary system as a world-spanning payment system that is inherently hierarchical because it needs central nodes for clearing and settlement. The centrality of the US-Dollar (USD) as global key currency places the US at the apex and makes the Federal Reserve (Fed) the system’s hierarchically highest institution. Other monetary jurisdictions are pushed into peripheral positions and rely on both using and creating USD-denominated credit money instruments “offshore.” Based on this approach, we explain international monetary hierarchy through different mechanisms to supply emergency USD liquidity from the Fed to non-US central banks. Currently, there are three different public mechanisms for non-US central banks to access the Fed’s balance sheet and attain emergency USD liquidity. The first-layer periphery may receive emergency USD liquidity via the Fed’s central bank swap lines. The second-layer periphery can make use of the Fed’s new repo facility for Foreign and International Monetary Authorities to access emergency USD liquidity. The residual mechanism for the third-layer periphery to access emergency USD liquidity is the Special Drawing Rights system, administered by the International Monetary Fund, in which the Exchange Stabilization Fund acts as gatekeeper for the Fed

The hierarchy of the offshore US-dollar system : on swap lines, the FIMA repo facility and special drawing rights

Published February 2021This study conceptualizes international monetary hierarchy by focusing on different mechanisms to supply emergency US-Dollar (USD) liquidity from the Federal Reserve (Fed) to non-US central banks. To this end, it takes on board insights of critical macrofinance and develops a model of the global financial architecture as a web of interlocking balance sheets

Potentiale, Wirkungen und ökonomische Bewertung von hochwertigen Verkehrsinformationsdiensten

This paper analyzes the high-end range of traffic information systems for individual motorized traffic and for public transport. High value-added traffic services are characterized by dynamic, personalized information, including suggestions for alternative routing; they are supplied on a commercial basis, mainly by private enterprises. Based on a qualitative forecast of the diffusion of high value-added traffic information systems, we estimate their potential impact on the transport system as a whole, as well as on the environment. The approach also considers the strategies of the key actors (mainly enterprises) at each level of the value-added chain: Primary data collection and treatment, distribution of information services, data transfer, and the reception of information via specialized devices. The study concludes that high value-added traffic information systems will be much more widely diffused in the future, both in public transport and in individual motorized traffic. Traffic information services will also lead to a more efficient use of infrastructure. However, as regards economic policy, there seems to be no need for state intervention to remedy market failure. -- In diesem Beitrag werden hochwertige Verkehrsinformationsdienste für Nutzer des motorisierten Individualverkehrs (MIV) und des ÖPNV untersucht, die aus kommerziellen Interessen bereitgestellt werden und sich durch dynamische, personalisierte und empfehlende Verkehrsinformationen auszeichnen. Aufbauend auf einer qualitativen Prognose über die zukünftige Verbreitung hochwertiger Verkehrsinformationsdienste werden deren Auswirkungen auf das System Verkehr und die Umwelt ermittelt, um dann einen eventuellen wirtschaftspolitischen Handlungsbedarf abzuleiten. Dabei werden auch die Strategien der Schlüsselakteure auf den Märkten in die Überlegungen miteinbezogen. Bei der Analyse werden explizit die einzelnen Stufen der Wertschöpfungskette von Verkehrsinformationsdiensten betrachtet: Verkehrsdatenerhebung und -aufbereitung, Angebot und Vertrieb der Verkehrsinformationsdienste, Datenübertragung per Mobilfunk sowie Informationsausgabe auf Telematik-Endgeräten. Es wird festgestellt, dass zukünftig hochwertige Verkehrsinformationsdienste sowohl im ÖPNV wie auch im MIV eine weite Verbreitung erreichen und tendenziell zu einer effizienteren Nutzung der Infrastruktur beitragen werden. Ein wirtschaftspolitischer Handlungsbedarf im Markt für hochwertige Verkehrsinformationsdienste ergibt sich jedoch weder hieraus noch aus anderen Gründen.Telematics,Traffic Information Services,Market Failure,Market Development,Verkehrstelematik,Verkehrsinformationsdienste,Marktversagen,Marktentwicklung

The development of video game enjoyment in a role playing game

This study examines the development of video game enjoyment over time. The results of a longitudinal study (N=62) show that enjoyment increases over several sessions. Moreover, results of a multilevel regression model indicate a causal link between the dependent variable video game enjoyment and the predictor variables exploratory behavior, spatial presence, competence, suspense and solution, and simulated experiences of life. These findings are important for video game research because they reveal the antecedents of video game enjoyment in a real-world longitudinal setting. Results are discussed in terms of the dynamics of video game enjoyment under real-world conditions

Managing periprosthetic fractures: perspectives on periprosthetic pelvic fractures

Periacetabular periprosthetic fractures are rare but potentially disastrous for the longevity of the adjacent implants, leading to multiple revision surgeries. It is of paramount importance to identify and treat intraoperative fractures, which will lead to satisfactory results. Postoperative fractures may be managed operatively or nonoperatively depending on the patient's pain and function, the fracture pattern, and the stability of the acetabular component