samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
We see this not just from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the extreme forms of socialism which it and its satellites practised, but also, in a subtler sense, from the fact that, among economies which have throughout been part of the free world, those which have been least burdened with high marginal taxation, state intervention in industry and commerce, massive social security programmes and so forth, appear to have come out on top in terms of growth and full employment. The USA, the UK, Hong Kong and some others in the Asia-Pacific region now exemplify this point. By contrast, Japan and much of continental Europe remain saddled with a greater number of structural and bureaucratic problems, which, arguably, have been a brake on growth. But commitment to the market is far from sufficient to ensure a prosperous economy. The commitment must be accompanied by transparency, accountability and freedom from corruption, and by an infrastructure of laws which match the needs of the market economy, are respected and, when required, are enforceable. Absent those conditions, you end up with economic anarchy, which is perhaps what best describes the current situation in a number of countries which switched with much acclaim to the market paradigm during the past decade or so. Another example of the ascendancy of market-based economics can, I would argue, be found in the realms of corporate governance.

Much has been written of late as to whether costs in Hong Kong are too high. Let me ask you to reflect on the following. Cities such as London and New York have a reputation for being expensive. So also do of a number of capital cities in former communist countries. In a very general sense one can say that London and New York are expensive as a consequence of success as business centres and because, presumably, people still feel that there is value for money there. I leave you to judge whether the others would fit that description; to my understanding, some of them have become expensive for rather different and less palatable reasons. I strongly believe that Hong Kong fits the London-New York paradigm. Actually, our competitiveness (as measured by the real effective exchange rate) is now back where it was in mid-1997 before the onset of the Asian crisis, thanks to the sharp adjustment of property prices and reductions in labour costs, and with help from a strengthening of other currencies, notably the yen. Nevertheless, although costs may now be back closer to their norm, Hong Kong will never be a cheap place. But when you take account of what is on offer here and the high productivity of the labour force, I hope you will agree that you get value for money.
Bank’s ability to absorb such projected losses would depend on their ability to generate revenue in the future as well as on their current capital cushions. The assessment identified a net capital need of $ billion based on the fourth quarter 2008 capital positions of the firms. After taking account of capital-raising actions already underway as well as the revenue generated in first quarter 2009, the net need for new capital was $ billion spread across 10 of the 19 institutions. These capital needs were for the highest quality type – common equity. Perhaps the most striking outcome of the process was that a detailed publication of the results for individual banks proved to be confidence enhancing and served to help make banks “investable” again. Thus, a key lesson from the SCAP process was that, under certain circumstances, transparency about the methods used and a willingness to commit to disclosure of the results by public authorities can be a calming force. Finally, it is worth noting that while the financial crisis has taught us that financial institutions need high-quality common equity capital to absorb losses, that transparency and disclosure about their potential exposures are essential, it has not given any definitive indication of how much larger the capital buffers of financial institutions need to be to assuage worries about future tail events that can drive panics.

This is evident with the significant three-fold increase in contributions of the product marketed through bancatakaful in 2005 which accounted for 20.4% of total contributions. Bancatakaful has contributed considerably to the increased penetration in the family takaful business, especially for single contribution takaful plans. We envisage significant inroads in the penetration rate of bancatakaful in future years in line with the positive trend shown by the conventional counterparts, where the bancassurance captured 45.3% of the new life insurance business premiums generated in 2005. Through efficient cost structures of bancatakaful and with the entry of joint-venture takaful operators involving banks and savings institution with extensive nationwide branch network, the takaful industry should maximize the potential of this alternative distribution channel. Finally, on the global front, Islamic finance has made significant inroads and has achieved growing global recognition. Another significant milestone in the progress of Islamic banking and finance as recently announced by Bank Negara Malaysia is the initiative to enhance the position of Malaysia as an international Islamic financial centre (MIFC). With the vibrant domestic Islamic financial industry that has become an integral component of the financial system, Malaysia is now well positioned to be an international centre of origination and issuance of Islamic financial instruments, fund and wealth management, Islamic financial activities in international currencies and takaful and retakaful businesses. As at year 2005, the total gross contributions from takaful business outside Malaysia recorded an insignificant proportion of the total contributions of the industry.
Mr Heikensten reviews policy developments and changes affecting Sveriges Riksbank, and assesses the current situation and outlook  Speech by Mr Lars Heikensten, First Deputy Governor of the Sveriges Risksbank, at the Autumn Conference Centre for Business and Policy Studies on 12 October 1999. *  *  *  The autumn conference, arranged by the Centre for Business and Policy Studies, is a tradition I have come to enjoy and an opportunity of looking back on the course of monetary policy and considering future challenges. My review last autumn began with the observation that a good deal had happened as regards economic developments and the conditions for monetary policy. Much the same applies on this occasion. Two years ago we were in the throes of what looked like being a strong cyclical upswing with attendant price increases. My remarks at the autumn conference caused short interest rates to move up about 0.10 percentage points in expectation of a tighter policy. Little more than a month later the Riksbank did in fact raise the repo rate. Last year the situation was very different, with an international financial crisis and great uncertainty about its effects on the real economy. The krona had become markedly weaker and there was some discussion at the conference about the Riksbank’s recent currency market intervention. Later that autumn the Riksbank reduced the repo rate in two steps. Today the prospects for growth and employment are bright again and the krona is substantially stronger.

This is shown in Slide 3.23 For each respondent, we fit a flexible parametric probability density function (PDF) to their bin probabilities. We can then compute several moments of interest from the fitted density forecast for each individual respondent, including measures of central tendency such as the density mean or median, measures of uncertainty, such as the interquartile range, or IQR, and measures of skewness.24 As I already noted, there are several important advantages to eliciting a density rather than a simple point forecast. In a world characterized by pervasive uncertainty, density forecasts provide a comprehensive representation of respondents’ views about possible future outcomes for the variables of interest. Importantly, density forecasts enable us to compute the degree of uncertainty associated with each respondent’s estimate. The measurement of forecast uncertainty is important for policymakers in order to assess the extent to which inflation expectations remain well-anchored. In addition, by eliciting density forecasts, we can focus on a specific measure of central tendency and use that for cross-respondent comparison and aggregation purposes. Research indicates that by forcing respondents to consider the likelihood of different outcome ranges, density-based expectations measures,  20  In analyzing individual changes in expectations (from one month to the next) expressed by our SCE respondents, we find that changes in inflation expectations are little correlated with changes in expectations about future gasoline price changes. 21  Bruine de Bruin et al.
If companies are relying on CCS to achieve net zero carbon emissions, investors will want to assess how they plan to get there – and who they expect to pay for it. 26  The IPCC estimates that additional investment of $ 190-900bn is required annually in the energy sector alone if the rise in average global temperature is to be capped at 2C. www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/ Mercer estimates that additional cumulative investment in efficiency improvements, renewable energy, biofuels and nuclear, and carbon capture and storage could be in the range of $ by 2030. www.mercer.com/insights/point/2014/climate-change-scenarios-implications-for-strategic-asset-allocation.html  8  BIS central bankers’ speeches  of attempting to use such changes in prudential rules – designed to protect financial stability – for other ends. More properly our role can be in developing the frameworks that help the market itself to adjust efficiently. Any efficient market reaction to climate change risks as well as the technologies and policies to address them must be founded on transparency of information. A “market” in the transition to a 2 degree world can be built. It has the potential to pull forward adjustment – but only if information is available and crucially if the policy responses of governments and the technological breakthroughs of the private sector are credible. That is why, following our discussions at the FSB last week, we are considering recommending to the G20 summit that more be done to develop consistent, comparable, reliable and clear disclosure around the carbon intensity of different assets.

f.  We expect insurers to have effective risk management and governance, including independent risk and internal audit functions; and boards with a majority of independent non-executive directors, for both insurance groups and significant insurance companies within those groups. g. Insurers must disclose their financial position regularly in some detail, based on market prices for assets and liabilities as far as possible. Our regime, however, is not seeking to eliminate all risk (or achieve the stability of the graveyard). Provided insurers match their assets and liabilities, the Solvency II Matching Adjustment insulates them from movements in the market price of assets backing annuity liabilities to which they are not 4  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  4  exposed as buy-and-hold investors. They are also able to bring forward into day-one profits any returns on these assets in excess of what is required to compensate for the risk of credit default and downgrade. That adds up to a powerful incentive to invest in long-term assets yielding good risk-adjusted returns. Since the introduction of Solvency II, UK insurers have responded by diversifying out of government and corporate bonds into direct investments in infrastructure finance, commercial real estate lending and equity release mortgages (Chart 3). The infrastructure investments, for example, include renewable energy, hospitals, student accommodation, social housing and railway rolling stock leasing (Chart 4).
Comparing the level on nominal convergence among the present accession countries to the respective levels in some of the former accession countries five years prior to their EMU accession, it is evident that there should be no serious concerns as to most of the present accession countries' ability to fulfil the nominal criteria over the mid-term But Estonia's choice of a currency board based monetary regime holds some inherent advantages in this respect. Fiscal balance is a very important prerequisite for a smoothly operating and effective currency board arrangement, and that has had a strong impact on Estonian fiscal policies. The main goal of Estonian fiscal policy is balancing the budget over the cycle and absorbing the possible fluctuations in the private sector savings rate. We believe that a balanced fiscal stance together with strong financial system is also the most efficient way to avoid short-term speculative capital inflows within the context of EU accession. At this point, we expect no great difficulties in meeting the sovereign debt and budget deficit criteria. In that sense - Estonia, most likely, would be technically ready for joining the euro area even as early as 2006. The biggest challenge for the public sector, in that context, would be to avoid a lax macroeconomic policy mix that would over-stimulate domestic demand and result in significant real appreciation. And of course - there is really a huge amount of technical preparations that must be completed before joining the euro area.

1  Such liquidity may be secured against a wide range of collateral, building on the collateral eligible in Sterling 2  Monetary Framework operations. The Bank’s objective would be to provide liquidity in sterling or foreign currency as required, in the necessary scale and for a sufficient period of time to allow the firm to make the transition to market-based funding. The terms would be set in a way designed to support the effectiveness of the resolution regime, incentivise the transition of the firm back to market-based funding, and protect public money. Confidence in the regime for the resolution of international banks is of crucial importance to the UK. We are home to a number of major international banking groups. But equally, if not more important, we are host to a very large number of foreign banks, many of which have sizeable wholesale market operations in the UK. As the leading international financial centre, we import considerable risks from other jurisdictions. It is therefore crucial to financial stability in the UK that we can rely on foreign banks operating in our jurisdiction having viable resolution strategies in line with international standards. Absent such assurance, we would need to ensure the entities operating here have greater resilience locally. Non bank resolution  It was the failure of systemic banks in the crisis that exposed the lack of an effective resolution regime.
In particular, job growth has picked up in Buffalo, and the Capital Region continues to see sturdy growth coupled with significant manufacturing job gains. However, not all parts of upstate New York are seeing the same degree of economic progress. There has been little to no growth in the center of the state, and Utica and Binghamton continue to see employment declines. Binghamton stands out as being particularly challenged, as its economy has yet to see any meaningful recovery from the Great Recession. Steep manufacturing job losses have weighed heavily on the area, though these losses appear to be nearing an end. I had the opportunity to visit Binghamton earlier this summer, and I was encouraged by what I saw. The region is making serious efforts to boost economic growth, with Binghamton University playing a key role in fostering local business activity. And, like many places dealing with steep manufacturing job losses, there is a large swath of displaced workers that need assistance returning to the labor market. This has proved challenging and remains a priority. Update on Puerto Rico On balance, I think it’s fair to say that the economic news from much of the Second District has been quite positive. An important exception, though, has been the fiscal crisis faced by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, home to 3.5 million U.S. citizens. Unfortunately, Puerto Rico continues to struggle under the weight of economic stagnation, employment declines and outmigration.

Although the skills of those who have migrated to the Mainland look much like those who remain, the departure of tens of thousands of residents each year represents a huge drain on Puerto Rico’s potential growth. Among those who remain on the Island, low labor force participation, an aging population and relatively poor preparation for skilled jobs represent significant headwinds to growth. While our analysis seems to paint a somewhat dark picture of economic conditions on the Island, it’s important to remember that there are significant opportunities for action that can leverage the Island’s strengths to foster economic growth. These include its bilingual adult population, an open economy occupying a central position in the Caribbean, wide experience as host to international corporations, and close economic ties to the U.S. mainland. It is in exactly this spirit that we present this analysis – in the hope that it will help policymakers focus on actions that can help to restore growth and prosperity to the Commonwealth. Going forward, we will stay engaged in this effort. Middle-wage jobs returning Let me conclude by returning to the theme of the labor market. Job growth is essential to the vitality of an expansion, but the types of jobs being created are also important. While the labor market has continued to add jobs at a solid pace, many remain concerned about a lack of job opportunities for the middle class. Indeed, growth of middle-wage jobs has been lackluster for the past few decades, with gains occurring disproportionately in higher-wage and lower-wage sectors.
As you heard from the Bank’s Governor, Mark Carney, yesterday, the Bank’s strategy is to enable innovation and empower competition, while ensuring monetary and financial stability.2 In practice the Bank is embracing fintech, and working to do as much as we can to ensure that it develops in ways that maximise the opportunities and minimise the risks for society, and that as such are entirely consistent with the defining theme of this year’s summit – “the value and purpose that fintech has to society”. The Fintech Hub one year on The vehicle we use to do all this is our Fintech Hub, which we launched one year ago.3 This team, which grew out of our award-winning Fintech Accelerator, sits at the heart of the Bank and leads our fintech strategy by bringing together expertise from all of Bank’s business areas. They have engaged extensively with the fintech sector to understand developments and apply these to support the next wave of innovation in finance. Examples of their work this year include: collaborating with HMT and the FCA to set out the UK’s approach to cryptoassets and distributed ledger technology in financial services4; examining challenges in cross-border payments with colleagues from the Bank of Canada and Monetary Authority of Singapore 5; exploring how  As set out by Mark Carney in his 2018 Mansion House Speech, “New Economy, New Finance, New Bank”, available at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2018/mark-carney-speech-at-the-lord-mayors-bankers-and-merchants-dinner-mansion-house. 2 “A Platform for Innovation”, available at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2019/mark-carney-speech-at-innovate-financeglobal-summit-2019.

Developments in the Swiss housing market have been relatively steady, despite the strong demand pressures discernible in certain regions. At present we do not detect any obvious signs of a speculative bubble that might culminate in a sudden fall in prices. The main explanations for the rise in real estate prices in the past few years have been higher expectations and good financing conditions. Around Lake Geneva the pressures on the limited available space and the fast growth in the residential population have acted as special stimulants. Thus there have been no speculative developments as witnessed at the end of the 1980s. Now that the business cycle has peaked in Switzerland, it is very likely that we will move into a phase of more moderate price increases. BIS Review 73/2008  1
That is why I am pleased to say that I shall be one of Vikram’s patrons for his Benefit year in 2007. Of course, I could not talk about sport in the Black Country without referring to football. Nowhere had, in my day, more first division teams within a few miles radius than the Black Country. And all the supporters of those teams have had many opportunities over the years to learn how to win and, especially, how to lose. But for the sake of local interest and rivalry, I am looking forward to the day when Wolves and the Albion are restored to the Premiership. Just as football needs a referee, so does the economy. I think of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee – the MPC – as the referee for the economy. The MPC sets interest rates to keep inflation on track to meet the 2% target. We want to allow you to focus on running your businesses – you are the players – while the MPC quietly gets on with its job. You may have seen in the news that yesterday the Bank of England published its latest Inflation Report. That set out our view on the prospects for the economy over the next couple of years. Perhaps I could briefly summarise our latest analysis of the UK economy. For the past year GDP has grown at a rate around its long-term average. Inflation has picked up and has been above the 2% target since May.

The credit easing package and expanded APP has been effective too in reducing wholesale funding costs for banks, allowing banks to pass on better funding conditions to their customers. Since summer last year the average cost of borrowing for euro area non-financial corporations has fallen by around 70 bps, and by 90 bps and 110 bps for NFCs in Spain and Italy, respectively. The latest evidence from the July Bank Lending Survey confirms the improvement in credit conditions. During the second quarter of 2015 credit standards continued to ease for firms, and even more so for households. Reflecting the endogenous relationship between credit supply and demand, credit demand also increased among both groups driven mostly by the low level of interest rates. The impact of the expanded APP on bank funding costs has been partially reversed by the recent market repricing. Here, however, the credit easing package and our broader asset purchases could act as complements, in particular the Targeted Long-Term Refinancing Operations. For the APP, the ECB defines the volume of liquidity it would like to inject, but cannot determine the price; for TLTROs, we define the price of the liquidity, but banks determine the volume. One tool can therefore act as an automatic stabiliser for the other. Indeed, as wholesale funding costs for banks have risen, so has the attractiveness of the TLTRO. This substitution effect accounts in particular for the higher participation in the fourth operation by banks in less vulnerable countries.