Economy of Words

Abstract

The central banks that I have studied typically have museums attached to them. I have a particular fondness for the Geldmuseum of the Deutsche Bundesbank in Frankfurt with its handsome curation of the history of coinage and banknotes along with elegantly designed exhibits that explain the nature of money and the operation of central banks. A colleague at the Bundesbank suggested that on my next visit to the museum I should try an interactive display that simulated the role of a central banker illustrating how monetary policy influences the economy over time. I followed his advice.The simulation was ingenious. It provided a careful explanation of the policy tools available to central banks-basically the manipulation of short-term interest rates that determined the availability of money and credit to the German economy-and how these monetary interventions are meant to work along with the contingencies and the constraints associated with each policy move. Then it presented a series of economic scenarios and asked you, in the role of the central banker, to select an appropriate policy stance. What made the simulation particularly intriguing (and rankling) was that as the simulation played out over time the implications of each of your prior decisions was transmitted to the German economy. Thus, at each subsequent stage of the simulation you were compelled to take a policy stance that responded to new conditions in the economy-specifically price inflation and economic growth-that you had a hand in creating. Apart from evoking mild mortification, the simulation demonstrated even on this very elementary level the complexities faced by central bankers in their role in stabilizing

Los imaginarios de “inversores”, “mercados” y “valor” en la distribución del dinero por la industria financiera: un estudio de caso sobre los derivados de crédito

“…Algo similar ocurrió cuando los estados salvaron a los bancos que quedaron en bancarrota por sus inversiones en derivados de crédito (Campbell, 2011;Guillén y Suárez, 2010;Holmes, 2009;Ortiz, 2012, Underhill y Blom, 2012. El cambio temporal de dueño no indujo ninguna transformación fundamental de los métodos de evaluación e inversión, y luego los bancos fueron reprivatizados para seguir con su misma actividad.…”

Moulding Knowledge into a Legal Complex: Para-ethnography at the Swedish Tax Agency

“…In reality, though, they seemed rather to be props supporting the Task Force members' views and deliberations as they paid attention to the Tax Agency's claims of legitimacy amongst the Swedish tax-payers. When these analysts interpreted the law, they did so taking into account their understanding of norms acceptable to most citizens creating a story that it was deemed legitimate to tell (Holmes 2009).…”

Imagined Futures: Fictionality in Economic Action

“…It is through their story-structure that imaginings of future states become determinate (Iser 1993). Stories have become a topic in economic sociology (Diaz-Bone/Krell 2009;Mützel 2010;White 1992), organization studies (Brown et al 2005;Czarniawska 2004), economic anthropology (Holmes 2009), and political science (Salmon 2007), but also in economics (Akerlof/Shiller 2009;McCloskey 1990). One strand of this research focuses on narrative representations of past occurrences that take the form of organizational, economic, or societal myths (Anderson 1983).…”