The last coal mine in Wałbrzych, Poland closed in the 1990s, leaving a region that had long relied on mining facing severe economic disruption. Unemployment soared, local businesses suffered, and an entire way of life built around the coal industry seemed to disappear overnight. By 2000, only one-tenth of the jobs lost in the mining […]
Picture two houses—one with old windows, no insulation, and older appliances, and the other featuring simple energy-efficient upgrades and equipment. The difference between these neighboring houses is more than just aesthetics. Those living in the first house could ending up paying up to five times more for heating in winter than the better-off family just […]
Safe assets are financial instruments that maintain a stable value even after adverse macroeconomic shocks. This column explores how banks supply safe assets through securitisation and evaluates the consequences for financial stability. As safe assets become scarcer, banks increasingly rely on securitisation to produce safe assets, relaxing screening standards in the process. This lowers loan […]
Imagine getting to work on a program that will bring internet access and digitally enabled services to 180 million people. Opportunities like these illustrate the meaningful role institutions like the World Bank, and teams across the institution like ours, can play in addressing urgent development challenges that can drastically improve people’s lives. In Eastern and […]
Safe assets are the building blocks of modern financial markets. This column examines the sectoral dynamics of safe assets across advanced economies since the 1980s. It shows that foreign demand for these assets has steadily increased, with the financial sector playing a key role in meeting it. However, because financial institutions often back the safe […]
