Policies·ch_snb_floating_franc_1978

Swiss SNB abandonment of DM-ceiling and monetary targeting 1978-1981

CHE·1978 – ·enacted 1978-10-01candidate

What the policy did

Swiss National Bank under Fritz Leutwiler introduced explicit monetary-aggregate targeting (M0 / central-bank money) from 1974, briefly imposed an informal DM ceiling in autumn 1978 to arrest franc overshoot (franc had appreciated ~40% in 1978), then returned to monetary targeting from 1979. Exceptionally influential early- adopter of Friedmanite monetary-aggregate framework outside Bundesbank.

Policy-content fingerprint — what this policy moved, on which axes

Per invariant 3, reforms are scored by what they did on each channel-separated axis, not by the party that enacted them. This fingerprint is how the policy-match engine finds historical analogues.

intended

↑

central bank independence

monetary.central_bank_independence

De jure and de facto independence of the central bank from fiscal authority. Per D.1.5 scope, one of the framework's defensible monetary positions.

increased · strong

greater independence (legal, operational, personnel)

Rule-based monetary-aggregate framework entrenched SNB discretion in price stability.

Enacted by

swiss_magic_formula_consensus_1959_2003

Empirical evidence — linked hypotheses

Explicit links are curated by the author. Inferred links are hypotheses in the library that test the same axes this policy moved — the framework's answer to "what does the data say about a policy like this?".

Truss 2022 mini-budget shows that unfunded fiscal expansion above the ZLB triggers sharp bond-market and currency responses through expected-inflation and risk-premium channels.

unfunded_fiscal_expansion_above_zlb_bond_market_responseinferred

viamonetary.central_bank_independence

SUPPORTED — GBP/USD trough on 2022-09-26 (1.0703) was 5.02% below the 2022-09-22 pre-announcement close (1.1269); log-decline +0.0515 clears the 3.0% threshold …

supported

UK Truss mini-budget 2022 gilt crisis reflected market confidence and institutional-framework rupture rather than an MMT-predicted hard fiscal limit, because the BoE restored order by intervening as issuer.

uk_truss_mini_budget_currency_sovereign_mechanisminferred

viamonetary.central_bank_independence

partial — Both mechanism legs are directionally consistent but at least one fails the SUPPORTED threshold: FX leg holds (5.02% trough decline); yield leg partia…

partial

The September 2022 UK gilt-market dysfunction had its operative amplification mechanism in the foreign-currency-collateral exposure of the Liability-Driven Investment (LDI) leveraged-derivative chain in the UK pension system, not in a "fiscal limit" reached by the sovereign issuer.

truss_2022_currency_user_ldi_collateral_mechanisminferred

viamonetary.central_bank_independence

INCONCLUSIVE_DATA_PENDING — no outcome variable loaded; missing: ['boe:IUDLG7N', 'boe:IUDMNZC', 'boe:gilt_volatility (manual); ice:UK_gilt_options', 'fred:DEXUS…

run pending

Across countries 1990-2023, higher de jure and de facto central-bank independence predicts lower mean CPI inflation and lower inflation volatility, conditional on a basic set of controls (exchange-rate regime, trade openness, fiscal balance, initial inflation level).

central_bank_independence_inflation_disciplineinferred

viamonetary.central_bank_independence

PARTIAL — coef=+9.05e-17, p=0.747; effect magnitude effectively zero

partial

UK GDP per capita (PPP, constant international dollars) diverged negatively from a matched synthetic counterfactual of similar-income anglophone/developed economies (USA, CAN, AUS, NZL, DEU, NLD, CHE) starting around 2008 and widening post-2016 (Brexit referendum).

uk_economic_decline_multi_movementinferred

viamonetary.central_bank_independence

INCONCLUSIVE_DATA_PENDING — treatment 'uk_post_2008' has no within-country variation under country fixed effects

run pending

Every documented hyperinflation episode since 1900 (Weimar Germany, post-WW2 Hungary, Yugoslavia 1990s, Zimbabwe 2000s, Venezuela 2010s-2020s, among others) was preceded by fiscal dominance — a state of affairs where monetary policy is subordinated to financing government deficits that cannot be financed by taxation or market-rate borrowing.

hyperinflation_requires_fiscal_dominanceinferred

viamonetary.central_bank_independence

INCONCLUSIVE_DATA_PENDING — no outcome variable loaded; missing: ['hanke:hyperinflation_table']

run pending

Argentine monthly CPI inflation declines from its late-2023 peak (around 25% month-on-month in December 2023 following the 54% peso devaluation) to below 5% month-on-month within 12 months of Milei's December 2023 inauguration, and below 3% month-on- month within 18 months.

milei_reforms_reduce_argentine_inflationinferred

viamonetary.central_bank_independence

INCONCLUSIVE_DATA_PENDING - INDEC IPC Nacional vintage missing from local data/vintages; expected indec:148.3_INIVELNAL_DICI_M_26 (indec:148.3_INIVELNAL_DICI_M_…

run pending

Japan post-1990 has run gross public-debt-to-GDP ratios from ~70% rising to ~250%, the highest sustained level in the OECD record, WITHOUT triggering inflation, currency collapse, sovereign-spread blowout, or fiscal-dominance-induced loss of monetary control.

fiscal_dominance_japan_debt_non_crisisinferred

viamonetary.central_bank_independence

INCONCLUSIVE_PENDING_DATA

run pending

Similar historical policies

Ranked by axis-fingerprint overlap with this policy. Direction match bolded — those are the closest historical analogues. Shape of the match is what drives policy-outcome comparison, not the country or party label.

Convertibility Plan (Plan Cavallo) — Argentina 1991-2002

ARG·1991

match

1.0

central bank independence

Austrian Hartwährungspolitik — schilling peg to DM 1976

AUT·1976

match

1.0

central bank independence

Hawke-Keating reform package (1983-1996)

AUS·1983