Author

Frances Coppola 35 posts 0 comments

Frances Coppola, a former banker, is a writer, singer and twitterer extraordinaire. Coppola Comment is her main blog, which started out as a place where she could ramble on about anything that interested her. These days the posts on the site are entirely about matters financial and economic. She does not talk about her personal life or beliefs unless they are relevant to a financial or economic matter. Frances is politically non-aligned and economically neutral (She does not regard herself as "belonging" to any particular school of economics). And she does not give investment advice.

Political Economy

Why China cares about Japan’s negative rates

Frances Coppola Feb 1, 2016

By Frances Coppola originally posted at Coppola Comment Japan has just introduced negative rates on reserves, following the example of the Riksbank, the Danish National Bank, the ECB and the Swiss National Bank. The Bank of Japan has…

Political Economy

The coming Greek bank nationalization, bail-in and privatization

Frances Coppola Jul 20, 2015

The existence of capital controls eliminates contagion and makes it possible to bail-in deposits that would normally be considered to have systemic consequences. The more I look at it, the less benign this bailout deal appears. Indeed it…

Political Economy

Morality in the Greek Crisis

Frances Coppola Jun 29, 2015

I know I keep saying that economics is not a morality play. But when it comes to Greece, I can find no other satisfactory explanation for what is going on. I've reminded everyone before about Irving Fisher's famous observation: "The more…

Economy

How do you say “dead cat” in Latvian?

Frances Coppola May 28, 2015

By Frances Coppola This, my third post on Latvia, looks at its recovery from the 2008-9 recession. Latvia is often held up as the "poster child" for harsh austerity measures as the means of returning to strong economic growth. In…

Economy

Property, inequality and financial crises

Frances Coppola May 28, 2015

So where did they get the money? It's an all too familiar story. Inflows of foreign capital, mainly from Scandinavian banks, attracted by low interest rates and a population hungry for credit - credit advanced, of course, against…

Political Economy

The Latvian financial crisis

Frances Coppola May 26, 2015

In the 2008-9 crisis, Latvia suffered more than any other country despite its extensive bank reforms after the 1995 crisis. Yet only one of its banks failed (Parex): the rest were bailed out by their foreign owners. So the question is, if…

Monetary System

Rediscovering old economic models

Frances Coppola Apr 22, 2015

The point of all this is that models don't have to model everything, and even "wrong" models can be helpful if used in the right way. And narrative has its uses too.

Political Economy

Repeat after me: sectoral balances must sum to zero

Frances Coppola Mar 22, 2015

By Frances Coppola I do like sectoral net lending charts. This one is from the OBR's latest Economic Forecast: The thing to remember about sectoral balances is they must sum to zero. It is not possible to have a negative external…

Political Economy

QE is fiscal policy

Frances Coppola Jul 24, 2014

By Frances Coppola A new paper by Johnston and Pugh of the legal department of the University of Sheffield discusses the legality and the effectiveness of QE and its relatives, including the ECB's OMT "whatever it takes" promise. The…

Monetary System

On the persistence of inadequate ideas like the money multiplier

Frances Coppola Apr 4, 2014

I have been saying for years now that the money multiplier does not adequately explain how money is created in a modern fiat money economy. In particular, the idea that banks are passive intermediaries who simply respond to injections of…