The Bank for International Settlements is the stopped clock of international economic institutions. It has argued for monetary and fiscal tightening, whether that makes sense, or not. Fortunately, policymakers, or at least the central banks that are members of the BIS, have ignored its apparent conviction that the world needed an even deeper and more prolonged recession. Yet now, precisely because central banks wisely ignored its advice, a synchronised recovery has finally arrived. So does the latest BIS annual report tell the right time again, as it did in the years before the crisis?
國際清算銀行(BIS)是國際經濟機構里停擺的時鐘。BIS主張貨幣與財政政策緊縮，無論這么做是否合理。幸運的是，政策制定者、起碼是作為BIS成員的各個央行，忽略了BIS如下顯而易見的觀點：世界需要一場程度還要更深、時間更長的衰退。不過現在，恰恰因為央行明智地忽略了BIS的建議，一場同步復蘇終于到來。那么，在最新年度報告里，BIS這面停擺的時鐘是否像危機之前那些年一樣，再次顯示了正確的時間？