Sylvester Eijffinger's picture
Affiliation: 
CentER, Tilburg University
Credentials: 
Professor of Financial Economics
President of Tilburg University Society

Voting history

Labour Markets and Monetary Policy

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Question 2: Do you agree that, in a period of great uncertainty and after a prolonged period of weak real wage growth, monetary policy makers can afford to wait for greater certainty about real wage developments and building inflationary pressure before raising interest rates?

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Answer:
Strongly Agree
Confidence level:
Very confident
Comment:
Monetary policy makers should be careful with interpreting inflationary expectations but must also be aware of large overliquidity they have created by their expansionary monetary policies after the financial crisis and react quickly when real wage developments are going out of hand.

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Question 1: Do you agree that a strong labour market is a good indicator of building inflationary pressure?

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Answer:
Strongly Agree
Confidence level:
Very confident
Comment:
There is no substantial empirical evidence that the Phillips curve relationship has weakened permanently not that a strong labour market shouldn’t be a good indicator of building inflationary pressure. Mario Draghi is right that we must be careful with interpreting inflationary expectations.

Bitcoin and the City

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Question 2: Do you agree that the regulatory oversight of cryptocurrencies needs to be increased?

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Answer:
Strongly agree
Confidence level:
Extremely confident
Comment:
The regulatory oversight of cryptocurrencies needs to be increased by the ECB, Federal Reserve and Bank of England because of the threat to the stability of the financial system (see question 1) by undermining the monopoly of money creation by the central banks and the ineffectiveness of conventional and unconventional monetary policy and by the systemic risk of cryptocurrencies.

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Question 1: Do you agree that cryptocurrencies are currently a threat to the stability of the financial system, or can be expected to become a threat in the next couple of years?

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Answer:
Strongly agree
Confidence level:
Extremely confident
Comment:
The increase of volume of cryptocurrencies, the launching of Europe’s first Bitcoin mutual fund and the U.S. acceptance to list futures contracts on Bitcoin imply a threat to the stability of the financial system in the coming years on which the ECB and Federal Reserve should act upon. The Bitcoin bubble is an example of a speculative bubble that can be explained rationally from an individual perspective but not from a collective perspective and is comparable with Tulpenmania.

House Prices and the UK economy

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Question 2: Do you agree that a more widespread weakening of the UK housing market will slow UK GDP growth significantly?

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Answer:
Agree
Confidence level:
Very confident
Comment:
The more widespread weakening of the UK housing market will certainly slow UK GPD growth significantly because it is accompanied by the uncertainty about the financial and trade relations with the European continent caused by the Brexit negotiations and the unclear British positions.

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