samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Switzerland is to be represented as an entirety, as a country open to the rest of the world and also as a meeting place for the world. The focus should not be on any individuals, inventions or achievements. Much rather, a basic attitude and its manifestations should be conveyed: Switzerland as a platform for dialogue, progress, humanitarian commitment, exciting experiences, creativity and the search for practical approaches to solutions within organisations. It is envisaged that these topics will be dealt with through the lens of economics, education, research and development, human rights, tourism and recreation, culture and, lastly, sports. Six topics have to be depicted, namely the activities of negotiating and exchanging, teaching and researching, helping and mediating, enjoying and relaxing, creating and designing, and deciding and implementing. Each of these topics will be assigned to one denomination of the new banknote series. The artistic representation must emphasise the topics rather than specific events or institutions. The traditional portrayal of personalities and the depiction of institutions and previous achievements should be dispensed with. The illustration of a university, for example, should not serve as a self-portrayal but could symbolise “progress”. As previously, the banknote series should form a “family” both with regard to content and design. In other words, although each banknote type must have its own characteristics, they must at the same time share sufficient features to be easily recognised as part of the new series.

Competition for ideas For the design of the new banknote series, a competition for ideas will be held this year. Twelve graphic designers fulfilling the following requirements have been invited to participate: •  They are not older than 45 years of age. •  They are professionally active in Switzerland. •  They are familiar with the essential printing procedures. •  They have already demonstrated their creative and graphic skills. •  They dispose of adequate resources in terms of infrastructure and staff to ensure continuity, or are willing to build up such resources. •  They are willing to commit themselves to a long-term engagement. In April 2005, a banknote seminar will be held for these designers to expand their knowledge of the subject matter. The seminar will also mark the beginning of the competition. The participants have to submit their drafts by 31 October 2005. A jury will assess the drafts and award prizes. At the end of November 2005, the drafts will be presented in a public exhibition. The jury will be chaired by  2/3  Jean-Christophe Ammann, an art historian, exhibition organiser and former director of the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, and will be composed of art and design experts. The National Bank may decide at its own discretion, however, with which designer it wishes to collaborate in the future. He or she may, but must not necessarily be one of the prize winners. 3/3
I should add that we are seeking new opportunities for discussion with accounting standards-setting bodies and private sector accounting professionals. The Status of the New Accord The Committee is currently reviewing carefully these responses and other issues that the industry raised. In relation to pillar 3, we are evaluating closely what should be reported publicly, versus what can remain confidential. We are refining the rules so that they will help secure a more level playing field without being overly burdensome. We are aligning our reporting requirements with those emerging from accounting standards. In terms of the way forward, as you may know, in mid-October the Committee reached an important agreement on a work plan for taking these and other issues into account, and significant progress was made on major issues. What is most important to the Committee is the quality and consistency of the new Accord. At the same time, we recognised the need to provide banks with as much certainty as possible while they plan and prepare for the adoption of the new rules. In our last meeting in Madrid, the members of the Committee agreed on the importance of finalising the New Accord expeditiously and in a manner that is technically and prudentially sound. We noted in a statement to the press that we expect to address the remaining issues and complete the text of the New Accord in the coming months and no later than mid-year 2004.

These must not be less than 72.5% of the RWA calculated using a standardised approach defined by the regulator. Page 4/8  capital may not fall below a certain percentage of its total assets. 5 By setting a minimum capital requirement, this ratio protects against overly optimistic risk assessments. The new liquidity and capital requirements apply to all banks. They strengthen the ability of an individual bank to withstand major outflows and losses without becoming illiquid or insolvent. 6 A second set of measures is aimed exclusively at large and highly interconnected banks, and addresses the ‘too big to fail’ issue. 7 Banks whose collapse would have a significant impact on the economy and financial system were thus made subject to more stringent requirements than other banks. 8 These systemically important banks must hold an additional capital buffer to bolster their resilience and reduce the likelihood of them getting into difficulty. However, the possibility of major shocks in the financial industry and real economy causing systemically important banks to get into existential difficulties can never be entirely ruled out. Systemically important banks must therefore take financial and organisational precautions to prepare for such an event. 9 Specifically, they must hold sufficient loss-absorbing capital to enable them to carry out a restructuring or wind-down on their own, i.e. without taxpayers’ money.
30  Debt, default and dependency on high-cost credit are also a recipe for another d – depression. Debt and financial illiteracy affect physical and mental health. without to have a common mental health disorder. 31  32  Adults in debt are three times more likely than those  Financial stress is associated with high levels of  personal anxiety, depression and alcohol-dependency - problems that tend to felt more acutely by people with low levels of financial literacy. 33  The link between debt, financial illiteracy and mental health is clearly two-way. In a survey by mental health charity MIND, over 90% said that financial problems had worsened existing mental health problems, while around two-thirds said mental health problems had contributed to their financial difficulties. 34  There is a  debt-cum-depression spiral. These statistics are, in every sense of the word, depressing. A lack of trust or understanding of finance and the economy can have wider societal costs. Economic mistrust and misunderstanding can spread contagiously across societies, much as happened after the MMR 26  House of Lords Select Committee on Financial Exclusion (2017). Resolution Foundation (2014). 28 Lusardi and Tufano (2009). 29 Gerardi, Goette and Meier (2010). 30 Disney and Gathergood (2013), for example, find that borrowers with poor financial literacy hold higher shares of high cost credit. 31 Richardson et al (2017). 32 Earwicker (2016). 33 Earwicker (2016). 34 As quoted in Earwicker (2016). 27  6  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  6  vaccine scare.

A survey in 2011 asked about the meaning of the words “inflation” and “GDP”, the two central concepts in macroeconomics. Only 16% of the public could clearly define inflation, while only 10% could define GDP. Other surveys have reached similar conclusions, sometimes with slightly higher fractions. 3  4  This unfamiliarity with economic concepts extends to a lack of understanding of these concepts in practice. For example, the Bank of England regularly surveys the general public to gauge their views on inflation. When given a small number of options, less than a quarter of the public typically identify the correct range within which the current inflation rate lies. More than 40% simply say that they do not know. 5  If we turn from economics to finance, the picture is no better. In a recent survey, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that almost half the public believed they had “low knowledge” of financial matters. 6  7  Some surveys put the fraction of the public who are financially capable at only around 60%. Fully two-thirds 8  of the public say they are confused when making decisions about money. And the UK consistently performs poorly in international league tables of financial literacy. 9  This understanding deficit appears to extend to economic and financial policy. For example, fewer than one in ten people know that the interest rate in the UK is set by the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Only around a quarter understand “quantitative easing” and fewer still “forward guidance”.
For the remaining five external members, the propensity to be in the minority has been very similar to the Bank executive (excluding the Governor), with dissenting as a proportion of total votes at 12% and 11% respectively. Moreover the differences in votes have been small. On only four occasions has the difference between the highest and lowest interest rate voted for exceeded 25 basis points, and, interestingly, all four were between August 1998 and April 1999, a period of great uncertainty about whether there would be a downturn in the world economy that did not in fact materialise. Since then differences of view have 5  4  Hall (1971), “Decisions, decisions, decisions”, Psychology Today, November. BIS Review 34/2002  never exceeded 25 basis points. The average difference between the interest rate cast by the member voting for the highest average level of rates and the member voting for the lowest average level of rates is less than 15 basis points! Such a small difference hardly corresponds to a major difference of view about the outlook for inflation. 3. Third, has the Committee explained clearly the reasons for its decisions? Transparency has been at the centre of the monetary policy framework since 1992 when it was recognised that clear explanations of policy would help to anchor inflation expectations on the target. The first major step in enhancing transparency was the Bank’s Inflation Report, which first appeared in February 1993, and was subsequently enhanced by publication of the minutes of the meetings between the Chancellor and Governor.

Charting a path for monetary policy in this environment thus requires a nuanced understanding of how globalisation both affects inflation and influences the stance of monetary policy. It is to these I will now turn. Global Influences on Domestic Inflation In a closed economy, inflationary pressures depend on developments in domestic costs, which in turn depend on domestic spare capacity, or the balance of domestic supply and demand. Opening up the economy changes this relationship in three ways. 5  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  5  Most straightforwardly, external demand exerts pressure on domestic resource utilisation and therefore domestic inflation. The importance of this channel has steadily increased for most of the past half century (Chart 4). 7  Chart 4: External demand has steadily increased in importance  Sources: IMF and Bank calculations. Next, in an open economy, prices of imports affect domestic inflation both directly – through the final goods and services bought by households – and indirectly – through the prices of imported intermediates used in the production of final goods and services in the consumption basket. For years the direct effect has imparted a steady disinflationary bias. The integration of lower-cost producers into the global economy acts like an increase in potential supply for advanced economies, raising the level of 8  spending that is consistent with inflation at target.
We work simultaneously with several different models of inflation, some of which require absolutely no knowledge of, for instance, the output gap or potential growth. Even models that use comparatively insignificant assumptions from economic theory can have satisfactory predictive power. We also use disaggregated data on price and wage tendencies, shortages and so on. In the light of all this information we then try to complete the puzzle of future inflation. Another matter to emphasise in this context is that even when outcome figures for inflation are available, it is not always possible to separate the contributory factors. When forecasting future inflation, we normally start from a notion of the size of the output gap, the level of potential growth and so on. If it then turns out that inflation has been lower than we calculated even though growth followed the expected path, it may seem natural to attribute this to a better trade-off between inflation and growth. But the proper explanation may well prove to be something else, for instance that there was more unutilised capacity than the forecast assumed or that we underestimated potential growth. The impression that earlier relationships have changed does not necessarily mean that we are in the throes of a new economy; we may simply have gained better insights into how the earlier, essential relationships work.

To sum up, it can perhaps be said that the conditions whereby the new economy might also catch on in Sweden are good in certain respects. Two examples are the level of IT use and the macroeconomic environment. At the same time, it must be asked why what appears to constitute a new universal technology has not had a greater impact. This probably has to do with the workings of factor markets. 4. The inflation process to date in Sweden  So there are arguments both for and against the notion that the new economy can gain a hold, or is possibly already on its way, in Sweden as well. Now I should like to move on and look at whether the inflation process in Sweden has changed appreciably. Here I shall be using the simplified concept of how the economy functions that I outlined earlier. It should be noted in this context that in the past decade a great deal has happened in Sweden’s economy. Inflation and the general workings of the economy have presumably been favourably affected by such structural changes as the establishment of a low-inflation regime, tax cuts, adjustments of many transfer systems, market deregulations and Sweden’s membership of the European Community. So any signs that can be discerned in the statistics are probably mainly the fruit of more traditional structural adjustments rather than evidence of the new economy.
They are universal banks; and as such much less vulnerable to funding market conditions. Sound and revolving sources of profits are a vital asset at the current juncture. In this context, French banks can play an active role in the ongoing restructuring of the international financial sector. All in all, beyond sometimes serious tensions and incidents, French banks are now reaping the benefits of the major advances in productivity and innovation they have made over the last two decades. Public policy during the crisis both from a public and a private sector perspective Past months have seen a marked change in public policy. Having been in a first phase geared exclusively to providing liquidity to financial intermediaries, public intervention is since last Fall also aiming to support banks’ financing and own funds. This is a significant shift. Needless to say, restoring liquidity remains a pressing priority. Inter-bank markets have shown gradual signs of improvements. Yet, there is still some way to go. To this end, central banks have mobilised considerable ammunition. A process underway for over a year has culminated in the central banks having adjusted their operational frameworks in various areas. The maturity and currency of their facilities have been expanded. The range of eligible counterparties has been broadened. The tender procedures have been modified with a view to ensure unlimited amounts of central bank money. The list of collateral for refinancing has been widened. As for the Eurosystem, they have been providing liquidity at a fixed rate for unlimited amount.

As you know, at the French President’s instigation, huge efforts are made to think about what has been termed a “new Bretton Woods”. Beyond these ambitious words, I do believe it to be useful to take a fresh look at the existing financial regulation. As a contribution to this debate, I would like to make two final sets of remarks. One has to do with the fluctuations of financial systems. The other concerns financial supervision. Financial systems that operate in the context of a developed market economy are, by nature, subject to cyclical forces. Some are a consequence of the business cycle. Credit activity is an obvious example, as credit demand is heavily influenced by economic activity. Others are from within financial systems. For instance, financial institutions’ equity position moves in line with asset prices especially in a fair value world where fluctuations result in capital gains or losses. The challenge for the authorities is to assess whether and to what extent regulations reinforce these dynamics and impact the entire financial system. With these questions in mind, work is being undertaken to examine the impact of prudential standards. It is also on this basis that the accounting adjustments that I mentioned earlier have been made. The need to develop a “macro-prudential” policy is now under debate. The general principle is straightforward: it consists in ensuring that supervision manages to limit risks for the stability not only of a particular institution, but also of the entire financial system. Its implementation, however, is complex.
And I welcome the changes that you announced last week to make appointments to the Monetary Policy Committee subject to a more transparent process with a more systematic timetable. Behind the design of our monetary institutions is a simple principle. I described it last October in a lecture at Kirkcaldy. It is that the value of paper money depends on trust. Trust that it will hold its value. Trust that others will accept it as a means of payment. In particular, our banknotes must be trusted by the public – cash still accounts for over 60% of the number of transactions. In March the Bank launched a new series of bank notes with enhanced security features. As an economist, I was pleased that a pioneer of the dismal science should appear on our bank notes. Adam Smith, who appears on new £ notes, was a thinker who recognised the importance of institutions. Imagine my concern, therefore, when, after 3 ½ years as Governor, I read the following report from the Wolverhampton Crown Court. “A judge demanded to know why police failed for three and a half years to arrest a wanted Birmingham man – when all the time he was living at home. Adam Smith, suspected of passing forged £ notes, had a fixed address in Edgbaston and was picking up benefits”. So I hope the introduction of one Adam Smith will hinder the activities of the other. I am proud of the new £ notes, but I cannot say the same of our £ notes.

Assessing the effective degree of leverage in an ever-changing financial system is far from straightforward, and the liquidity of the markets in complex instruments, especially in conditions when many players would be trying to reduce the leverage of their portfolios at the same time, is unpredictable. Excessive leverage is the common theme of many financial crises of the past. Are we really so much cleverer than the financiers of the past? Concerns about the rate at which credit is being created extend to monetary policy. As I said last week in Cardiff, it would be optimistic in the extreme to suppose that the rapid growth of money and credit could be dismissed solely as a positive shock to the demand for money. The spread between interest rates paid by households and businesses and interest rates available in the money market has fallen. This has been one of the factors behind the strength of demand in the UK economy over the past  2  BIS Review 69/2007  year. Despite greater availability of labour, businesses have not expanded employment sufficiently to prevent stronger demand from increasing capacity pressures. Such pressures encourage businesses to raise prices. And that is exactly what the business surveys suggest has been happening. That underlying upward pressure on inflation has in part been hidden by the volatility of domestic energy prices. But it is why we have raised interest rates four times and by 1 percentage point in all over the past year.
The State Budget for 2013, which will begin to be drafted in the coming weeks, must uphold this commitment and give expression in specific  4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  measures to some of the announcements made in the context of the latest Stability Programme. It is no overstatement to say that much of Spain’s future is at stake in complying with these fiscal targets, and that failure in this process of consolidation would set back considerably the possibility of an economic recovery in our country. BIS central bankers’ speeches  5

This is a clear example of how the quality of the overall statistical system is higher than what the mere sum of independent products would be, were such products not well-connected. Micro data as the Holy Grail We can all agree that statistics have been undergoing a revolution in the last few years. Important technological advances have increased the ability to process huge amounts of data and productivity in this area has surged: policymakers and analysts have more and more information and details at their fingertips and now have the possibility of applying  1  more sophisticated models, designing more refined economic policy responses and answering more complex questions. Some of these changes stem from the experience of the Great Financial Crisis of the last decade. Then it was felt that only the availability of detailed information on economic agents’ positions (including cross-border ones) would allow the relevant policy authorities to thoroughly analyse the exposures of an increasingly interconnected global financial system and to better understand the monetary policy transmission mechanism and the massive deleveraging that followed. To close these gaps, the Eurosystem promoted a number of projects based on granular information. These included AnaCredit (to build up a Central Credit Register at the European level), the Securities Holding Statistics Database (which contains exhaustive security-by-security information on European portfolios) and Money Markets Statistical Reporting, where daily information at the transaction level is collected from financial institutions. In Spain, we also learned the lesson.