Now on Early View: 'Private money and money market integration: The role of payments infrastructure in nineteenth-century Switzerland. By Daniel Kaufmann & Rebecca Stuart. @kaufmanndani.bsky.social @rebstuart.bsky.social @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social @cepr.org #EHS100

<em>The Economic History Review</em> | EHS Journal | Wiley Online Library

Using newly collected discount rate data for six Swiss cities from 1846 to 1893, we find no evidence of increasing integration during a 30-year period of lightly regulated free banking. We attribute ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

The Riksbank leaves rates unchanged. www.riksbank.se/en-gb/press-...

Monetary policy decision: Policy rate unchanged at 1.75 per cent

Read more about the monetary policy decision on riksbank.se.

riksbank.se

Pssst. It's us. The New York Fed is here on Bluesky. Make your way to the front of the line to become one of our earliest followers. And feel free to repost! It's not really a secret!

Some thoughts on why central banks are unlikely to change interest rates this week: swissmacroandhistory.substack.com/p/central-ba...

Central Banks and the Case for Inaction

This will be an unusually busy week for central banks.

swissmacroandhistory.substack.com

Should be good!

Economic & Social History Society of Ireland@eshsi.bsky.social · 6mo ago

We’re delighted to announce the society's 2026 Distinguished Lecture will be delivered by Prof Tyler Anbinder of George Washington University. "The Surprising Socio-Economic Mobility of New York’s Great Famine Refugees" Online, 4pm GMT (11am EST), Thurs. 5 Mar. 2026. Register here: www.eshsi.org

We’re delighted to announce the society's 2026 Distinguished Lecture will be delivered by Prof Tyler Anbinder of George Washington University. "The Surprising Socio-Economic Mobility of New York’s Great Famine Refugees" Online, 4pm GMT (11am EST), Thurs. 5 Mar. 2026. Register here: www.eshsi.org

Very happy to announce that I have been appointed a Research Fellow in the @cepr.org Economic History programme! The CEPR is such an important part of the European economics network and I am looking forward to engaging in and benefiting from its many activities.

In today’s post I look at the Italian bond conversion in 1906. It shows how a government can reduce its interest burden by locking in improved credit conditions, without default or coercion. swissmacroandhistory.substack.com/p/the-italia...

The Italian Bond Conversion of 1906

How Italy lowered its interest payments

swissmacroandhistory.substack.com

An interesting presentation by SNB President Martin Schlegel at the 2025 SNB Watchers conference this afternoon. www.snb.ch/en/publicati...

📢 Virtual Workshop on French Economic History At 5:00 pm CET, @zhexunmo.bsky.social (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, CUNY) will present: “Soldiers versus Laborers: Legacies of Colonial Military Service and Forced Labor in Mali” Interested in joining? Email me for the Zoom link.

I began looking into how Swiss banks fared in the Great Depression and found a paper on the near failure of the Schweizerische Volksbank in 1933. It deserves wider attention, so I decided to write a post based on it. swissmacroandhistory.substack.com/p/blowing-up...

Blowing Up the Second-Largest Swiss Bank

The 1933 rescue of the Schweizerische Volksbank

swissmacroandhistory.substack.com

The Riksbank is looking for a new Deputy Governor. Central banks should advertise all senior positions — if the pool is restricted to insiders there can be no presumption that the best possible candidate is appointed. www.riksbank.se/en-gb/press-...

Recruitment of new Executive Board member initiated

The General Council of the Riksbank has decided to begin a recruitment process for a new member of the Executive Board of the Riksbank. The General Council also

riksbank.se

Stephen Miran, the Fed’s newest governor, used his first speech to argue that the neutral rate has plunged after this year’s sharp shift in US economic policy. It is a striking claim — and it raises the obvious question: is he right? swissmacroandhistory.substack.com/p/governor-m...

Governor Miran’s first speech

Has the neutral rate fallen sharply?

swissmacroandhistory.substack.com

Recently accepted by #QJE, “The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890–2006,” by Lyons (@ronanlyons), Shertzer (@econhist-allday), Gray (@econhistoryorbust), and Agorastos: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...

The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890–2006*

Abstract. We construct the first annual market rent and home sales price series for American cities over the 20th century using 2.7 million newspaper real

doi.org

Extraordinary news: Joel Mokyr has won the Nobel for his work on the Industrial Revolution. Entirely deserved, though in truth, he ought to win another for his work on the Great Irish Famine, which transformed how we think about Ireland’s nineteenth century and the economic history of catastrophe.

In today’s post, I look at the upcoming decision of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, MAS: swissmacroandhistory.substack.com/p/the-mas-at...

The MAS at the Crossroads

Decision finely balanced, but patience likely to prevail for now

swissmacroandhistory.substack.com

In today’s post, I look at Martin Schlegel’s excellent first year as SNB president. swissmacroandhistory.substack.com/p/martin-sch...

Martin Schlegel’s First Year as SNB President

A promising start with hopes of more to come

swissmacroandhistory.substack.com

Paris

Manuscript done ✅ Off to production at Bloomsbury! The book revisits Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations at 250, rethinking prosperity through inclusive wealth & sustainability More soon… 📖✨

Paper two presented by Emma Horgan @ucc.ie Discusses the effect of uncertainty on a range of newly constructed historical data series from 1945, paper with @seanekh.bsky.social and @a-fergal.bsky.social

@eoinaldo.bsky.social kicks of the Irish Macrohist workshop 2025 in @ucc.ie “Explaining the retreat of the Irish Language Fronteir”, paper with @cliochris.bsky.social and Alan Fernihough

@seanekh.bsky.social’s @ucc.ie paper presents a new improved Quarterly Irish GDP series from 1950, written with @rebstuart.bsky.social, as part of this @researchireland.ie pathways project on “External Shocks and Fiscal Sustainability”

Seasonally adjusted data show that Swiss inflation has strengthened over the summer, with annualised three-month inflation now running at about 1%. This suggests that underlying inflation is firmer than the annual figures imply. swissmacroandhistory.substack.com/p/quick-comm...

Quick comment: Swiss inflation in August

Seasonal adjustment reveals summer uptick

swissmacroandhistory.substack.com

Evening stroll

A US default may sound implausible. History shows it is not unprecedented. swissmacroandhistory.substack.com/p/could-the-...

Could the US Default on its Public Debt? Lessons from 1933

Source: Federal Reserve Board.

swissmacroandhistory.substack.com

One-year visiting position for advanced female postdocs in Dresden. I am happy to host anyone broadly interested in applied micro. Salary within the German public sector's pay scale (TV-L, E13-E15). Deadline: Sept 15, 2025. Please share widely! 👇

Today I take a look at inflation in Australia and the upcoming RBA meeting. Expect a 25 bps cut. swissmacroandhistory.substack.com/p/new-inflat...

New Inflation Data Point to an RBA Cut

Punchline: The Reserve Bank of Australia surprised markets by holding rates steady in July, but the decision seems more understandable in hindsight given the limited CPI data available at the time.

swissmacroandhistory.substack.com

This is a very good read about monetary policy in Australia by @insteconomics.bsky.social. open.substack.com/pub/stephenk...

When virtue is its own reward: the July RBA MPB minutes

Plus, the August TACO value pack

open.substack.com

Given the CSO's pioneering work to develop true measures of national well-being in a globalized world economy, Ireland can feel a little bit cheated at being left out! For those curious, GNI* in 2024 was 57% of GDP. Following that thru, it would place Ireland ~10th, level with Germany.

What is the richest country in the world in 2025?

Our annual ranking compares economies in three different ways

economist.com

In today’s post, I return to the question of interest rate spreads and the exchange rate of the Swiss Franc against the euro. Two-year spreads work much better than policy rate spreads, perhaps because of QE in the euro area. swissmacroandhistory.substack.com/p/interest-r...

Interest Rate Differentials and the Swiss Franc 2.0

Punchline: In an earlier post, I found little evidence that the SNB–ECB policy rate spread drives the CHF/euro exchange rate, likely because the ECB’s unconventional policies make its policy rate a po...

swissmacroandhistory.substack.com