Free exchange

THE members of the Federal Reserve's monetary-policy making committee have been desperate to hike rates, often, for most of the past year. They were keen to begin hiking in September, but were put off when market volatility threatened to undermine the American recovery. In December they managed to get the first increase on the books, and committee members were feeling cocky as 2016 began; Stanley Fischer, the vice-chairman, proclaimed that it would be a four-hike year. Instead, markets spent the first two months of the year in a near panic, and here we are in mid-May with just the one, December rise behind us.

IT IS OFTEN said that London is becoming a city just for the rich, particularly as far as housing is concerned. This sweeping statement means different things to different people, and it is actually quite hard to marshal evidence showing that this is indeed the case. There is, however, evidence that housebuilders are increasingly targeting wealthier customers over poorer ones. 

Some researchers suspect that there may be a persistent market failure in the British housing market.

IN RECENT years one of the most divisive issues in economics has been whether or not you see the Baltics as a success. When the financial crisis hit they decided to pursue what the IMF called "unprecedented fiscal and nominal-wage adjustment", in an attempt to preserve their currency pegs with the euro. A long debate has ensued as to whether the Baltics were right to do what they did, and whether countries like Greece, Portugal and Spain have anything to learn from them. Cue reams of graphs about output gaps, exchange-rate competitiveness and nominal-wage rigidity. 

I have been in Lithuania reporting on another story.

IT HAS now been two weeks since Scotland got control over income tax, the so-called Scottish Rate of Income Tax (or SRIT). Under this deal, Scotland has put in its own 10p rate of tax, and Westminster has reduced what it takes from Scotland by 10p. Also, Westminster has cut its funding for Scotland (the “block grant”) accordingly, given that more money is now raised locally. Ultimately, Scotland’s tax situation is thus exactly the same as it was more than a fortnight ago. Unsurprisingly, then, there has been little commentary about the SRIT since it was introduced. 

THE agile response of the Russian central bank to the oil crisis caught many off guard; so, how did the organs of Russian finance weather the crash? And, as the Panama papers threaten global tax havens, where should privacy end and transparency begin?

THE CEO of the London Stock Exchange, Xavier Rolet, talks to Anne McElvoy and Philip Coggan about the proposed merger of London's historic stock exchange and Deutsche Börse. Would it create a more globally powerful institution – or add more risk to to the financial system?