Here's One Sign That the World Cares a Lot Less About Monetary Policy
Jeffrey "Jeff" Bezos, president and chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc., from left, Larry Page, chief executive officer and co-founder of Alphabet Inc., Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook Inc., U.S. Vice President-elect Mike Pence, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Peter Thiel, billionaire co-founder of PayPal Inc. and a member of Donald Trump’s transition team, and Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., sit for a meeting with technology leaders at Trump Tower in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016. Technology industry leaders met with Trump seeking to persuade a man whose presidential bid many of them opposed to avoid policies they believe would hurt their companies. “I’m here to help you folks do well,” Trump told the executives as the meeting began.
Photographer: Albin Lohr-Jones/Pool via BloombergStep aside, central bankers.
The prospect of more government spending has helped make the term "fiscal stimulus" more common in a Bloomberg count of news stories, helping it to overtake "monetary policy" by the biggest margin since 2008.
It's a reversal of a multi-year trend that saw the task of repairing the global economy fall on the shoulders of the world's central bankers. They opted to use some of the most unorthodox stimulus ever tried including ultra-low (and sometimes negative) interest rates, as well as massive asset purchase programs.
The tide may be turning, however, and focus shifting to politicians and their plans. President-elect Donald Trump's proposal to increase spending in a bid to fan economic growth in the U.S. has helped boost the daily count of stories containing "fiscal stimulus" to the highest in eight years, stealing the spotlight from "monetary policy" in the process.
There are other signs that markets are shifting their attention, with the Bank for International Settlements -- sometimes known as the central bank's bank -- making the case in its latest quarterly report that recovering economic growth and higher interest rates have paved the way for investors to reduce their reliance on easy monetary policy.