Dutch economists Sylvester Eijffinger & Edin Mujagic see western countries implementing policies aimed at reducing or at least slowing down the level of public debt .. “In times of slow economic growth, policymakers’ options are grim .. many Western policymakers are seeking alternative solutions – many of which can be classified as financial repression .. Financial repression occurs when governments take measures to channel to themselves funds that, in a deregulated market, would go elsewhere. For example, many governments have implemented regulations for banks and insurance companies that increase the amount of government debt that they own.” .. this can be done through regulations like Basel Accord which require banks to set aside enough cash to handle unexpected events – the cash is encouraged to be in the form of government bonds .. also another mechanism of financial repression: “Western central banks are using another kind of financial repression by maintaining negative real interest rates (yielding less than the rate of inflation), which enables them to service their debt for free.” .. also there is the mechanism of raiding pension funds: “In many countries, including France, Ireland, and Portugal, governments have raided pension funds in order to finance their budget deficits. The UK is poised to take similar action, “allowing” local government pension funds to invest in infrastructure projects.”



09/05/2014 - FINANCIAL REPRESSION LIKELY TO BE AROUND FOR A LONG TIME














The transfer of power to a single European bank supervisor should be a game changer.






