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Raphael Auer, Rainer Böhme
Central banks across the world are starting to experiment with digital currencies. A 2021 BIS Survey of central banks “has found that 86% are actively researching the potential for CBDCs, 60% were experimenting with the technology and 14% were deploying pilot projects” (BIS 2021). Just last year, the Bahamas became the first country to introduce a CBDC nationwide (the sand dollar) and in April, the Eastern Caribbean became the first currency union central bank to issue digital cash.
1 Overall, the BIS reports that at least 46 central banks are currently actively designing or planning for the possible introduction of digital currencies (Auer et al. 2020). This year, the Bank of England and the Treasury announced the joint creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Taskforce to explore a potential UK CBDC.
Bubble trouble brewing in the housing market
With property prices around the world now growing by double digits, how big a risk are central banks running?
24 July 2021 • 5:00am
Nearly 15 years after a burst housing bubble tipped the world into the worst financial crisis for a century, booming property markets are triggering an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu.
From New Zealand to South Korea, prices are soaring. An Auckland fixer-upper, which couldn’t even boast its own toilet, changed hands for more than NZ$2m (£1.1m) this month; meanwhile 6,000 miles away in Seoul, authorities are racing to curb an overheating market. In the US, prices are rising at the fastest pace for more than 30 years, and over here a buyer “frenzy” has driven the busiest first half on record, according to property website Rightmove.
Nine lives A fair bit of trepidation and muttering has sprung up in the hack ranks of
The
Age and
The Sydney Morning Herald following a few days of deckchair swapping, including some that were simply tossed overboard. First, there was the departure of John Hewson and Amanda Vanstone as columnists and the arrival of Niki Savva. Savva, who worked for Nine chair Peter Costello back when he was treasurer in the Howard government, needed a place to land after leaving
The Australian in protest at the thought of sharing a page with Peta Credlin. So far so good: Savva does a readable column. And it s hard to imagine too many tears being shed for Vanstone s reactionary thought bubbles. The same remains to be seen for Hewson, after his pupation into something of a dapper climate change warrior gave the former Liberal leader a point of difference.