Dag Hammarskjöld was the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. He held the post from 1953 until his death in a plane crash while on a UN mission in Africa. He had also served as a senior civil servant in both the Swedish Ministry of Finance and its central bank. For the better part of…
The world changed when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. The event had consequences in financial markets as well and not only in Germany and the other belligerent countries. In neutral and warring countries alike, central banks and other public authorities addressed the sudden financial problems, most notably in foreign exchange and credit markets. In…
In the early 19th century, several new countries were born in Latin America. Many of these began to borrow in their own name from the capital markets, especially in London, and many found themselves bankrupt. Brazil was among the first group but not among the second, avoiding a fate that plagued much of the continent…
While increased state involvement in industrial affairs in Europe is typically identified as a defining feature of economic reality in the years after the Second World War, this involvement was a continuation of economic policies pursued by pre-war governments. Further, it wasn’t only ministers and bureaucrats that increasingly organized industry, but central banks as well.…
The Sveriges Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, is one of the oldest banks in the world but it was not an entirely novel creation. Rather, it took up the responsibilities of another bank that had recently failed, the Stockholms Banco. That firm was the victim of adjustments to the coinage that interrupted the monetary…
In the last two decades, the Federal Reserve has intervened extensively in American financial markets in the face of relatively unique crises. Its reaction to these crises included the deployment of new programs which were markedly distinct in their scope from the Fed’s day-to-day operations. Few public institutions are able to operate as quickly and…
The French Revolution was the culmination of a century of financial mismanagement. The political disorders only brought about further economic trouble though, and monetary mayhem as well. However, the Revolution did create opportunities in French finance as it eliminated barriers to the establishment of new banking firms. One of those formed in the wake of…
What banking and public finance have in common might not be obvious. However, in their histories, the two are joined at the hip. Indeed, some of the oldest banks have their origins in public finance. Counterintuitively, this includes central banks with roots as private organizations. The Bank of England, for example, was founded as little…
Despite the fact that modern central banking did not come about until the 19th century, the history of the Bank of England extends back far further. While its responsibilities have no doubt transformed over its three-century history, the Bank has always served a distinguished role in Britain’s system of public finance. Indeed, the institution has…
For better or worse, forecasting has become part of economists’ repertoires. But, given the delays involved in collecting and summarizing data into regular reports on the economy’s health, using more frequently compiled or even real-time data is an art in itself. Trying to make sense of the overall economy by looking at minute-by-minute movements in…
