Central Banks and Climate Change

[@jimluebke3869]

John Cochrane is an absolute hero in this debate, pointing out how utterly anti-democratic this proposal is.

[@FullSendRen]

Quality!!!! You will never know the extent of influence to which your effort to share truth has impacted common individuals.

[@irenedp4947]

Whilst continuing financing certain industries -such as oil or coal- might impact climate change, I reckon that Central Banks’ role should be to ensure the stability and sustainability of the financial system. That may involve a dose of activism as Tim Geithner did in his day, but extending the role to political priorities is, in my opinion, overstepping, be that the Fed, the ECB or the Bank of England.

[@mauriciomouramattardabul5037]

Such a great conversation! I was wanting to learn more in-depth about this topic since John Cochrane commented about this on Good Fellows. My overall conclusion is that a central bank's independence in the past was key to maintaining monetary policy transparency, especially in the case of underdeveloped and developing countries. But I came to realize that what truly matters in the end, not just for a central bank, but for government agencies and the government overall is accountability and rule of law. In this sense, I agree with Margaret Thatcher's opposition to the make the Bank of England independent, since who would keep the central bank's officials and their policies directly accountable if the central bank was kept independent. Though a dependent central bank to the executive branch (or legislative branch) can cause more monetary, economic, and political instability and deadlock situations, at least in this way, voters have the tools (their vote and public pressure) to pressure the administration for policy change or simply get rid of the administrations pushing these unwanted decisions. To have a central bank's independence revoked, in my view, would bring a positive change that could pull central banks closer to the democratic procedure. (This, however, is highly unlikely.) On the other hand, a more plausible solution could be, as I believe Milton Friedman suggested, to substitute the central bank's officials for a supercomputer that would naturally raise interest rates whenever the economy signals that it is too hot, and lower the rates when it signals it is sluggish. In this sense, the computer brings stability and keeps investors' expectations (a key metric to analyze how well a central bank's policy might work when put in place) stable since the computer could not change its main code. Here, whenever a recession occurs, like that of 2008, politicians could themselves create fiscal policies (like bailouts, if they opted to) so they can try to tackle the problems. I know it's a long comment, but I just wanted to leave my take on the matter, from someone who really enjoys the work the Hoover Institution is doing, not just in regards to central banks and CBDS, but on other topics so crucial in this day and age. Thanks.

[@LucidFL]

Central banks will use any excuse to consolidate power

[@alisahale6017]

What also worries me is the absolute refusal of those who support this change to allocate a CB to favor “green” companies to recognize the weight of costs on the lower economic sector population! If the poor get poorer as a result of this movement, this greener movement actually does more harm than good even apart from the ridiculous appointment of responsibilities to the CB.

[@lensuzio1]

Climate Risk management is likely to be implemented through the Community Reinvestment Act initially, perhaps by giving banks credit for activities that finance community resiliency with respect to climate-related risk exposure. There is an excellent database on current climate-related hazards that could be adapted for this purpose. I believe we may very well see this concept introduced in the imminent CRA NPR.

[@ShamanNoodles]

The central banks shouldn't be involved in politics nor climate change. It exists to ensure economic stability. Both of these subjects are antithetical to stability.

[@JerryDLTN]

How would the Federal Reserve have reversed the flooding of Doggerland or the Bering Strait?

[@orangetuono38]

Brilliant analysis and Insight. As usual Hoover pulls in another amazing expert. Thank you!

[@jackreacher.]

"Central Banks and Climate Change" Green v. Brown Thesis: (1:00:15) "...it's hard to see how any... relatively information insensitive capital role could be implemented in this area that isn't distortionary...."

[@DanHowardMtl]

Mark Carney - who's influences are Marx, Engels and LENIN! The first 2 are bad enough but Lenin? WTF. It will be funny when the pitchforks come out.

[@cumulusterraticus3446]

Lets improve THE GLOBE ASK ME !😏