The global monetary system has proven an unstable place in the years after 2008. Advanced economy central banks have pumped liquidity into the system via unprecedented programmes of monetary easing, possibly averting a second Great Depression but unbalancing the system and driving violent capital flows into vulnerable economies.

Gerard MacDonell has a lovely noahpinion guest post "So Much for the QE Stimulus" (HT Marginal Revolution). Some good bits here, with my bold on noteworthy zingers.

Economists often think that cash is to blame for the zero lower bound. Official interest rates can't fall far below zero because, the argument goes, people would hoard cash rather than pay to keep money in their deposit accounts.

Esther George, occasional Missouri farmer and practiced policy dissenter at the Federal Reserve, is back. Three years ago, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City voted repeatedly against an unconventional bond-buying program championed by then-Fed chairman Ben Bernanke to bolster the economy.