Clark Center Forum

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology continues to advance rapidly and grab the attention of investors, policymakers, and media opinion formers. For the latter, the ability of the latest generation of large language models (LLMs) to not only write increasingly passable copy but to do so in the style of named authors is causing more than a […] 

 

Short-termism is one of the frequently invoked criticisms of the management of publicly listed firms, asset managers, and individual shareholders. Critics allege that over the past few decades changes in the structure of financial markets and investor behavior have aligned into a system that encourages managers to focus on short term profits, at a potential […] 

This Finance survey examines (a) Letting publicly traded firms report earnings annually rather than quarterly would lead their executives to place more weight on long-term issues in their investments and other decisions; (b) A switch from quarterly to annual earnings reports would, on net, benefit shareholders 

This US survey examines: (a) Antitrust investigations of the dominant firms in artificial intelligence are likely to lead to substantially lower prices of AI products and services for businesses and consumers; (b) Antitrust investigations of the dominant firms in artificial intelligence are likely to promote greater competition and innovation in AI; (c) Potential harms from artificial intelligence are better assessed by market deployment rather than seeking to slow the pace of AI research and implementation 

At the end of the twentieth century, the average speed of trips made across central London was lower than in the year 1900. The reason for this regression was obvious to anyone spending time in a car in the United Kingdom’s capital: heavy congestion and frequent traffic jams snarling up the roads. In 2003 London […] 

This installment of the FTxBooth US Macroeconomists Survey discusses how many interest rate cuts the Fed is likely to make during the remainder of 2024 as well as factors that may affect that decision. The summary results are below and you can read the Financial Times article here, subscription required. View the results of this […] 

There are plenty of reasons why Japanese policymakers might favor a stronger yen. With Japan increasingly reliant on both imported food and imported energy, anything which increases the nation’s international purchasing power can be seen as positive. But the supposed benefits of a stronger currency run beyond that obvious implication. It helps to support household […] 

Looking back from 1919, the economist John Maynard Keynes wrote of the pre-Great War world as a high point of what would now be termed globalization. As he set out in the Economic Consequences of the Peace: “The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of […] 

This Finance survey examines that it seems likely that Japanese authorities intervened in the foreign exchange market recently to prop up the yen – see, for example: https://www.ft.com/content/455784ec-0465-46ee-8c73-fc5ce3e31c37. In such circumstances, intervention refers to purchases or sales of domestic or foreign currency without changing the monetary policy stance (a) Large-scale intervention by public authorities in currency markets can move exchange rates substantially (b) The effectiveness of foreign exchange interventions can last beyond one month