This week the ASI has two very exciting webinars: our regular 6.00pm Tuesday evening (tomorrow) on NGDP targetting, as well as a special event on Hong Kong on Wednesday afternoon at 12.00pm.

Honest Monetary Policy:
Understanding NGDP targeting

During this pandemic, the ASI has investigated a wide array of topics, from the fiscal and regulatory response to civil society and innovation. But we have yet to discuss perhaps one of the most important: monetary policy.

Over recent decades, central banks have gradually received operational independence, leading monetary policy to slowly move off the political agenda. But, central banks are still expected to follow a politically-set mandate, in most cases to target an explicit level of inflation.

While inflation targets helped address the historic plague of rampant price increases, questions have been raised about its appropriateness since the financial crisis. An alternative approach, in which central bankers target nominal GDP, has been proposed to help ensure economic growth during times of low inflation.

The Covid-19 crisis has once again highlighted the need for creative thinking about the role of central banks. We have assembled a panel of some of world's foremost monetary policy experts to discuss the potential of NGDP targeting, whether some central banks have already been following this to some extent, and whether we should update the mandates of central banks.

Panellists:

• Matt Kilcoyne is the Deputy Director of the Adam Smith Institute (Host)
• Scott Sumner is Director of the Program on Monetary Policy at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute, and professor who teaches at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He authored the ASI’s paper ‘The case for NGDP targeting: lessons from the Great Recession’ in 2011.
• David Beckworth is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and a former international economist at the US Department of the Treasury. He is the author of Boom and Bust Banking: The Causes and Cures of the Great Recession.
• Anthony J. Evans is professor of economics at ESCP Business School and is the author of Markets for Managers (Wiley, 2014).

Details:

Date: Tuesday, 23 June 2020
Time: 6.00pm - 7.00pm 

The webinar will begin at 6.00pm, with an audience Q&A session taking place at approximately 6.45pm. The webinar will conclude at 7.00pm.

Doing our Duty by Hong Kong

Protests reignited in Hong Kong as Beijing introduced the National Security law in May of this year. By passing it through the National People’s Congress, effectively a rubber stamping press for the CCP, China is undermining Hong Kong’s Basic Law and making a mockery of its civil liberties.

The National Security Law represents a draconian provision that undermines the principles of free speech and other civil liberties that we take for granted every day in the West. As protests against police brutality take place in the US, UK and Europe, we should not forget that Hong Kongers have been contending with the brutality of a CCP controlled police force since 2014’s Umbrella Movement.

Hong Kongers are worried, angry, and calling for help. We have a duty to answer.

The US has declared that it no longer sees Hong Kong as autonomous. The UK has announced that it plans, should China pass the National Security Law, to open a pathway to citizenship for Hong Kongers. But does this go far enough?

There are many serious questions to be asked regarding the future of Hong Kong and Britain’s relations with China. Can the UK maintain a positive economic relationship with China while doing its duty by Hong Kong? Can and should the UK go further than a path to citizenship for Hong Kongers, or should it accept the “one country, two systems” approach is over?

Panellists:

• Joshua Wong, Co-Founder and Secretary General of Demosisto, a pro-democracy party campaigning to protect Hong Kong’s autonomy.
• Lisa Nandy MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary and MP for Wigan.
• Tom Tugendhat MP, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee and founder of the recently formed “China Research Group”.
• Benedict Rogers, Chair and Co-founder of Hong Kong Watch.
• John Macdonald, Head of Government Affairs, Adam Smith Institute (Host)

Details:

Date: Wednesday, 24 June 2020
Time: 12.00pm - 1.00pm 

The webinar will begin at 12.00pm, with an audience Q&A session taking place at approximately 12.45pm. The webinar will conclude at 1.00pm.