Typography

Swiss National Bank share certificates Gavyn Davies blames the Swiss National Bank's corporate structure for the floating of the Swiss franc. Paul Krugman intimates the same, as does Cullen Roche . Here is Davies: But the SNB is 45 per cent owned by private shareholders, many of whom are individuals, who receive dividends from the SNB. The rest is owned by the cantons, which have been complaining recently about insufficient cash transfers from the SNB. Davies goes on to say that the influence of shareholders, combined with the peg, means that the SNB is particularly concerned about balance sheet losses. The idea seems to be that currency pegs often result in large balance sheet fluctuations, forcing a suspension of shareholder dividends. I disagree, as a quick peek at the details shows: 1) The dividend to which Davies attributes so much importance is minuscule. In aggregate it comes out to just CHF 1.5 million per year, or US$1.7 million . Private shareholders, who own just 40.3%...

2010 Bank of England note signed by Andrew Bailey , former Chief Cashier of the Bank. A few years ago, Peter Stella and Åke Lönnberg conducted a study that classified national banknotes by the signatories on that note's face. They found some interesting results. Of the world's 177 banknotes with signatures (10 had no signature whatsoever), the majority (119) were signed by central bank officials only. Just four countries issue notes upon which the sole signature was that of an official in the finance ministry: Singapore, Bhutan, Samoa, and (drum roll) the United States. Stella and Lönnberg hypothesize that the signature(s) on a banknote indicate the degree to which the issuing central bank's is financially integrated with its government. The lack of a signature from a nation's finance ministry might be a symbol of a more independent relationship between the two, the central bank's balance sheet being somewhat hived off from the government's balance sheet and vi...