Michael Kumhof - Banks Are Not Intermediaries of Loanable Funds – And Why This Matters
Channel: IIEA
Date: 2016-09-19

About the Speech:

The focus of the presentation was on Michael Kumhof and Zoltan Jakab’s working paper ‘Banks Are Not Intermediaries of Loanable Funds – And Why This Matters’, in which they contrast the intermediation of loanable funds model of banking with the financing through money creation model. Following identical shocks, money creation models predict changes in bank lending that are far larger, happen much faster and have much larger effects on the real economy than intermediation models. Mr. Kumhof outlined his argument that banks provide financing through the creation of new monetary purchasing power for their borrowers and are not intermediaries of real loanable funds. 

About the Speaker:

Michael Kumhof has been the Senior Research Advisor at the Bank of England’s Research Hub since 2015. The Research Hub is tasked with expanding the Bank of England’s research capacity and influence to support the central bank’s policy priorities. Mr. Kumhof was Deputy Division Chief of the IMF Research Department’s Economic Modelling Division between 2010 and 2015. He began working as an economist at the IMF in 2004. He was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Stanford University from 1998 to 2004 and worked in corporate banking for Barclays from 1988 to 1993. His main research interests are the quantitative evaluation of monetary reform proposals, modelling the role of banks in the macroeconomy, the role of economic inequality in causing imbalances and crises, and the macroeconomic effects of fossil fuel depletion.