Monetary and Financial Sustainability in a Post COVID-19 World

Dear Colleagues,

The situation of the world´s monetary and financial system is exceptional. Central banks are engaging in negative-interest-rate policies and quantitative easing. Government debts are at record highs. At the same time, the world is suffering the consequences of unprecedented lockdowns and the COVID-19 pandemic, which will require more financial engineering that will put the sustainability of the financial system at risk. The sustainability of the monetary and financial world is in question, and alternatives need to be explored. Major changes to the structure of the international monetary system may lie ahead. Christine Lagarde, when President of the IMF, declared that central banks should consider issuing their own digital currencies. At the same time, US President Donald Trump nominated Judy Shelton, a supporter of the gold standard, for the Federal Reserve’s board of governors. It is unclear how long the combination of fractional-reserve banking, a struggling and under-capitalized banking sector, an over-indebted private economy, a fiscally strained public sector, and the COVID-19 crisis will be sustainable. This Special Issue is dedicated to the sustainability issues related to our current monetary and financial system in a post COVID-19 world. Contributions to the Special Issue will examine the sustainability of government finances, the banking sector, the financial system at large, and price-stability policies, as well as alternative monetary systems, such as cryptocurrencies, and their sustainability. In this respect, it is important to examine the effects a monetary system may have on the environment in the form of business cycles, resource costs, and, particularly in the case of cryptocurrencies, energy costs. Contributions may also investigate the sustainability of monetary systems via case studies analyzing past crises and their social and cultural consequences. Articles may also approach the topic from an ethical point of view.

The following topics are addressed:

• Sustainability of fractional reserve banking
• Sustainability of unconventional monetary policies
• Sustainability of the banking sector
• Exit strategies from unconventional monetary policies
• Reforms of the banking sector and the monetary system
• Sustainability of price stability
• Effects of a monetary system on the environment
• Cryptocurrencies, energy and transaction costs
• Sustainability of government finances
• Comparison of alternative monetary systems
• Comparison of resource costs of financial and monetary systems
• The effects of government finances on the environment
• Sustainability of financial capitalism
• Conditions of a sustainable development and economic growth
• The sustainability of the Eurosystem
• Financial systems & tax havens
• Ethics of money and banking

Prof. Dr. Philipp Bagus
Prof. Dr. Antonio Sánchez-Bayón
Prof. Dr. Miguel A. Alonso Neira
Prof. Dr. José Antonio Peña-Ramos
Guest Editors

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