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Banks’ regulatory risk tolerance

12/04/2025 European Central Bank Central banks

We employ 68 quarters of data – including from non-public supervisory sources – to study how 17 US and 17 euro-area banks balance the risk of breaching regulatory requirements against the cost of maintaining and speedily restoring “management” buffers. We find that steady-state management buffer targets systematically declined and regulatory risk tolerance (RRT) rose following the Great Financial Crisis, especially at banks experiencing a stronger increase in capital requirements.

Tsipras takes stage for launch of book and would-be political manifesto

12/04/2025 Macropolis European Union

Alexis Tsipras stepped onto the stage at the Pallas Theatre in central Athens on Wednesday night ostensibly to present his new book, Ithaki, but the atmosphere, the crowd, and above all the content of his speech transformed the event into a declaration of political intent.

Nature Retracts Study Predicting Catastrophic Climate Toll

12/03/2025 New York Times USA

While growing evidence shows that carbon emissions are harming the economy, the journal Nature found that an outlier paper had deep flaws.

Why the future of psychedelic medicine might not be psychedelic at all

12/03/2025 The Conversation UK

Blackday/Shutterstock.comPsychedelic medicine has regained momentum in 2025. Investors are coming back, regulatory attitudes are softening, trial results are improving and major pharmaceutical firms that kept their distance are starting to pay attention.

Is anyone really misled by the term ‘veggie burger’? Our research suggests consumers are savvy

12/03/2025 The Conversation UK

Avelina/ShutterstockThe European parliament recently backed changes to the rules around the labelling and marketing of plant-based meat

The marketing genius of Spotify Wrapped

12/03/2025 The Conversation USA

Charli XCX performs during a celebration of the annual release of Spotify Wrapped in 2022 in Los Angeles. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for SpotifyEven before this year’s Spotify Wrapped dropped, I had a hunch what mine would reveal.

A hard year for federal workers offers a real-time lesson in resilience

12/03/2025 The Conversation USA

Imagine going from having a book club with your co-workers to seeing them only on a Signal chat where every member has to be vetted – and the main conversation topic is when you might lose your job.

That’s what it was like for workers at one federal agency earlier this year.

The UK’s latest compromise on workers’ rights will not fix its labour market problems

12/03/2025 The Conversation News & Comments

koldo_studio/ShutterstockThe UK’s autumn budget tried to appeal to both workers and employers. But the decision the very next day to soften a key plan to improve workers’ rights shows how difficult that balance has become.

The UK’s latest compromise on workers’ rights will not fix its labour market problems

12/03/2025 The Conversation UK

Estimating the natural rate of interest in a macro-finance yield curve model

12/03/2025 European Central Bank Central banks

Using a novel macro-finance model we infer jointly the equilibrium real interest rate r*, trend inflation, interest rate expectations, and bond risk premia for the United States. In the model r* plays a dual macro-finance role: as the benchmark real interest rate that closes the output gap and as the time-varying long-run real interest rate that determines the level of the yield curve. Our estimated r* declines over the last decade, with estimation uncertainty being relatively contained. We show that both macro and financial information is important to infer r*.

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