25
January, 2000
CENTRAL
BANK LIBRARIES AND THE INTERNET
Central banks run on information. Without their information centres,
libraries and the librarians who run them, the flow of information
would dry up. Central Banking, in a new survey, has looked at the
composition, workings and changing face of central bank libraries
and uncovered some interesting findings. Libraries are reacting
to the engine of the information revolution - the internet. Only
a handful (15%) of central bank libraries are not connected to the
internet and the majority use it extensively. In fact, it appears
to be somewhat of a poisoned chalice, increasing the workload for
over half the libraries we questioned. Most admit that "traditional
library duties don't take as long as they used to" and documents
can be downloaded from the internet, publishers, suppliers and other
libraries can be contacted via email and book reviews on the net
can indicate the focus of obscurely-titled books.
But there is an element of false economy involved. Although some
research can now be done by the bank's economists over the internet,
many librarians have to spend their time training them. Over 20%
of librarians have to organize on line library catalogues and some
have to install recent publications on the intranet The internet
is described by one librarian as "useful but time-consuming"
and according to another it has "increased the expectations
of our patrons". One reply cuts to the heart of the problem
that many librarians face with the internet "with the ease,
convenience and speed that is provided, searches become never-ending
and our problem is more on making choices."
CENTRAL
BANK OF TURKEY
The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey is offering to all domestic
and foreign users an electronic subscription system for its publications.
This system aims, on the one hand, to enable users to follow all
recent publications
of the central bank through its web page, and, on the other hand,
to help institutional investors to be informed timely and directly
by the central bank about recent developments on Turkish economy.
For subscription: http://www.tcmb.gov.tr/aboneing.html
.
KLEIN'S
FIRST WEEK AT BANK OF ISRAEL
David Klein has been appointed - not without some opposition from
the cabinet -
as the replacement for Jacob Frenkel as head of the Bank of Israel.
He is a career central banker and former director of monetary policy
at the Bank. He is in favour of tight monetary policy, but has cut
interest rates already.
On his first day on the job, Klein's wings were already being clipped.
The attorney-general, Elyakim Rubinstein, urged the Prime Minister
Ehud Barak to appoint a deputy governor, a position that has been
vacant for many years. The finance minister, Avraham Shohat, was
also trying to bring in reforms to the way monetary policy decisions
are made. At present the governor alone decides interest rates,
but Shohat wants to introduce a system where a council votes on
rate decisions so as to increase transparency.
NEW
VENEZUELAN GOVERNOR
Diego Luis Castellanos Escalona became the new governor of the Central
Bank of Venezuela in January, replacing Antonio Casas Gonzalez who
had been governor since 1994. Escalona, a graduate of the Central
University of Venezuala, was formally appointed on 20 January 2000.
Prior to joining the central bank, Escalona was president of Banco
de Comercia Exterior, and executive director of Fundafuturo. Between
1991 and 1998, Escalona also served as secretary to Venezuela's
National Economic Council. He was also once Venezuela's permanent
representative to the United Nations in Geneva.
HOW
EFFECTIVE ARE CAPITAL CONTROLS
Capital controls are in the news again. Sebastian Edwards has just
released a paper called How effective are capital controls. He deals
with Tobin taxes, controls on outflows and controls on inflows.
He claims outflow controls merely distort and breed corruption while
inflow controls, like those in Chile, although lengthening the maturity
of foreign debt, rarely achieve their other objectives. The paper
can be found at the National Bureau of Economic Research at http://papers.nber.org/papers/W7413
CORPORATE
GOVERNANCE
The National Bureau of Economic Research has looking at the Asian
crisis from another perspective. Michael Gibson has just published
an article on the state of corporate governance in South East Asia.
He estimates the link between CEO turnover and firm performance
for over 1,200 firms in eight emerging markets. He finds that CEOs
of emerging market firms are more likely to lose their jobs when
their firm's performance is poor, suggesting that corporate governance
may not be so ineffective in emerging markets after all.
http://www.bog.frb.fed.us/pubs/feds/1999/199963/199963abs.html
CHILE'S
BANK - A MODEL OF TRANSPARENCY
Carlos Massad, the President of the Chilean central bank is continuing
his bank's trailblazing stance (it was the first South American
central bank to gain independence) by making the bank a model of
transparency. He gives interviews almost every week, which can be
found on the bank's website at http://www.bcentral.cl/
BANK
OF TANZANIA WEBSITE
The Bank of Tanzania has a new website. It's quick, easy on the
eye with regular statistical information, press releases, an archive
and plenty of information about the bank. It can be found at http://www.bot-tz.org/BOT/default.asp
BOOK
REVIEW
LTCM-BANK OF ITALY PLOT
Published in December 1999, Nicholas Dunbar's book on the fall of
Long-term Capital Management has more to offer than the usual tale
of intellectual arrogance and economic hubris. Amidst the stories
of Wall Street "rocket scientists" creating money-making
machines of fiendish complexity, there are some nuggets concerning
the run up to EMU, and the hedge funds relationship with the Banca
d'Italia, in a nutshell:
"According to some observers who prefer to remain anonymous,
the Bank provided LTCM with market access and privileged information
denied to Italian banks - which would yield it a massive profit.
In return, LTCM - and a handful of others - would engineer the convergence
of Italian debt and get Italy into Emu. The Bank also invested in
LTCM, effectively front-running the population of Italy."
In October 1994, the Italian Foreign Exchange Office, separate but
closely related to the Bank, invested $100 million in the hedge
fund. Alberto Giovannini, chairman of the "Council of Experts"
advising the Italian Treasury at the time later found a job at none
other than LTCM, under Victor Haghani, the man who allegedly engineered
the deal.
"Inventing Money" is published in London by John Wiley
& Sons Ltd
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