Rogoff, K. (2014) “The 4% Non-Solution”, Project Syndicate, 05 June.
PARIS – For some time now, there has been concern that central bankers have “run out of bullets.” Having lowered their policy rates to near zero, they have engaged in increasingly extravagant measures such as “quantitative easing” and “forward guidance.” Given the fog cast over real economic activity by the financial crisis, it is difficult to offer a definitive assessment of just how well or badly those measures have worked. But it is clear that there must be a better way to do things.
There is no longer any reason to let the zero bound on nominal interest rates continue to hamper monetary policy. A simple and elegant solution is to phase in a switchover to a fully electronic currency, where paying interest, positive or negative, requires only the push of a button. And with paper money – particularly large-denomination notes – arguably doing more harm than good, currency modernization is long overdue. Using an electronic currency, central banks could continue to stabilize inflation exactly as they do now. (Citigroup’s chief economist, Willem Buiter, has suggested numerous ways to address the constraint of paper currency, but eliminating it is the easiest.)
Relevant posts:
- Eichengreen, B. (2014) “Losing Interest“, Project Syndicate, 11 April.
- Dobbs, R., Lund, S., Koller, T. & Shwayder, A. (2013) “QE and ultra-low interest rates: Distributional effects and risks“, McKinsey Global Institute, Discussion Paper, November.
- Sinn, H. W. (2013) “Why Draghi was wrong to cut interest rates“, The Financial Times, 13 November.