Author

Frances Coppola 35 posts 0 comments

Frances Coppola, a former banker, is a writer, singer and twitterer extraordinaire. Coppola Comment is her main blog, which started out as a place where she could ramble on about anything that interested her. These days the posts on the site are entirely about matters financial and economic. She does not talk about her personal life or beliefs unless they are relevant to a financial or economic matter. Frances is politically non-aligned and economically neutral (She does not regard herself as "belonging" to any particular school of economics). And she does not give investment advice.

Monetary System

Interest rates and deflation

Frances Coppola Mar 24, 2014

By Frances Coppola Scott Sumner argues that when the monetary base is fixed, low interest rates are deflationary. I've emphasised the fixed monetary base because it is an important condition. If the monetary base is NOT fixed then the…

Political Economy

The ECB and the Eurozone Credit Crunch

Frances Coppola Mar 6, 2014

Business lending in the Eurozone is very poor - flat in the major core countries and falling in the periphery. There is a desperate need to ease credit conditions for SMEs in periphery countries. The slight easing of interest rates on…

Political Economy

Deflation and the ECB

Frances Coppola Mar 5, 2014

The ECB continues to argue that there is no deflation risk in the Eurozone though many people dispute this. The ECB must act, and politicians in the Eurozone must allow it to do so. Treaties be damned.

Political Economy

The long decline of the Great British Pound

Frances Coppola Feb 24, 2014

The value of the pound in 1945 was too high even for Britain as it was then, let alone now. It is time to put the past behind us, and move on.

Economy

Explaining the US labour force participation problem

Frances Coppola Feb 21, 2014

Falling activity rates are often blamed on the long-term unemployed giving up the quest for work. And indeed the US does have a long-term unemployment problem at the moment. Research by Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement…

Political Economy

How Scottish self-determination matters

Frances Coppola Feb 17, 2014

The events of the last week have made it very clear that Scottish independence would affect all of the UK. I have no vote in this referendum, but I definitely have an interest in its outcome.

Political Economy

Scotland and the banks

Frances Coppola Feb 15, 2014

The UK government this week ruled out any question of agreeing to a currency union with an independent Scotland. So where does this leave Scotland's currency conundrum? And what about the banks? Scotland has two very large banks - RBS and…

Economy

Incentives matter in resource allocation

Frances Coppola Feb 10, 2014

Here is the heart of the matter. It is not the motivation to make money that makes people efficient with resources. It is having a single clearly-defined purpose. When objectives are unclear, money is inevitably wasted.

Political Economy

Oh no, not again: Ed Balls’ 50p tax rate

Frances Coppola Jan 27, 2014

At the Fabian conference yesterday, Ed Balls announced the Labour Party's intention, if elected in 2015, of restoring the 50p tax rate that was abolished by the present Coalition government. It is the central plank of his deficit reduction…

Monetary System

Risk pricing in labour markets

Frances Coppola Jan 14, 2014

The argument that unemployment happens when wages fail to adjust sufficiently to changed market dynamics is a well-aired one. But explanations of "sticky wages" tend to focus on structural rigidities such as employment protection…