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Steffen Murau

@steffenmurau.bsky.social
343 followers 190 following 68 posts

Research group leader OBFA-TRANSFORM project (obfa-transform.eu) | Global Climate Forum, Berlin. Freie Universität Berlin. Boston University.

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Reposted by Steffen Murau
Friederike Reimer @rikereimer.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Spent some time in the Uckermark this week, working with a different scenery than usual, preparing also for our course "The Political Economy of the Global Dollar System" with @steffenmurau.bsky.social at the JFK Institute of FU Berlin.
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
📣 Call for Papers 📣 The OBFA-TRANSFORM research group is hosting a workshop on 12-13 June at the Freie Universität Berlin! The title is "Monetary Architecture. Mapping the Web of Interlocking Balance Sheets in Times of Change". See the CfP here: tinyurl.com/5n7aab2r ▶️ Apply by 10 April
Call for Papers: "Monetary Architecture. Mapping the Web of Interlocking Balance Sheets in Times of Change"Call for Papers: "Monetary Architecture. Mapping the Web of Interlocking Balance Sheets in Times of Change"
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Olan McEvoy @olanmcevoy.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
The Trump administration's plans to use the Development Finance Corporation to insure oil tankers in the Gulf to the tune of 350bn dollars has again drawn attention to how states try to respond to emergencies when they are subject to fiscal constraints. A 🧵 www.ft.com/content/6dde...
ft.com
Industry doubts Trump plan to insure Gulf oil tankers as Iran war halts transit
US lacks firepower to provide $350bn in coverage needed to revive Strait of Hormuz transits, JPMorgan says
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Reposted by Steffen Murau
herman mark schwartz @thunen.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Pleased to announce publication of the fifth edition of states versus markets www.bloomsbury.com/us/states-ve... The book is now old enough to drink in the USA but of course I have significantly updated it with each new edition. Buy a copy for Mother's Day or the holiday of your choice!
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Friederike Reimer @rikereimer.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
At the OBFA-TRANSFORM group, we sometimes do videos on our publications - now it was my turn, with @olanmcevoy.bsky.social interviewing me on our paper on the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the limits to incremental fiscal integration in Europe! www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT7P...
youtube.com
The Recovery and Resilience Facility: Schrödinger's Off-Balance Sheet Fiscal Agency?
YouTube video by OBFA-TRANSFORM
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
➡️ The failure to coordinate investment across public, private and hybrid balance sheets. ➡️ The failure to discipline or direct private capital toward domestic reinvestment.
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
We argue that the post-Apartheid state has not established a framework for governing the monetary architecture as a complex adaptive system. This has produced three systemic failures: ➡️ The failure to integrate poor households into the financial architecture.
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
We show how the assets & liabilities of banks, development finance institutions (DFIs), pension funds, shadow banks, households & state-owned enterprises (SOEs) interact to support/constrain investment & inclusive growth We also introduce different "classes" of households & firms to the framework
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
We analyze how SA's monetary architecture changed in the last few decades. To this end, we visualize the setup of the South Africa's web of interlocking balance sheets in 1983, 1996, 2014, and 2024
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
The report is based on contributions and discussions with experts on South Africa’s economy and financial system. We also had several high-level workshops between 2023 and 2025
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
📝 Our report on the transformation of South Africa’s monetary architecture (1983-2024) co-authored with Mark Swilling for the National Planning Commission of South Africa has been launched last week! 📝 Find the full report here: www.nationalplanningcommission.org.za/assets/Docum...
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
@agutersandu.bsky.social, Armin Haas, @leon-heckmann.de, @moritzkapff.bsky.social, @gregorlaudage.bsky.social, @olanmcevoy.bsky.social and @paulstichler.bsky.social
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
@proufos.bsky.social, @csissoko.bsky.social, Aleksandar Stojanović, @matthiasthiemann.bsky.social, @jvtk.bsky.social, and @jwullweber.bsky.social. We owe a great deal to all of them. Moreover, thanks to all the other members of the OBFA-TRANSFORM project Fanny Chaltiel, @averenasour.bsky.social,
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Numerous people have commented on various aspects of this project over the years, including @andreabinder.bsky.social, @benbraun.bsky.social, @plbds.bsky.social, @danielagabor.bsky.social, Martin Höner, Elizaveta Kuznetsova, Perry Mehrling, @fabianpape.bsky.social, Tobias Pforr, Jay Pocklington,
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
The idea to develop an interactive visualization of the dynamics in a monetary architecture emerged in 2020. In the OBFA-TRANSFORM project (obfa-transform.eu), we developed the backend & frontend structure. It runs on large spreadsheets that capture the complexity of the case studies.
obfa-transform.eu
OBFA-TRANSFORM - The Political Economy of Financing Large-Scale Transformations
Off-Balance-Sheet Fiscal Agencies in Wars, Reconstruction, and the Green Transition
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Our take on it has been published in an article in the Journal of Financial Regulation entitled ‘Encumbered Security? Vertical and Horizontal Repos in the Euro Area and Their Inherent Ambiguity’: academic.oup.com/jfr/article/...
academic.oup.com
Encumbered Security? Vertical and Horizontal Repos in the Euro Area and Their Inherent Ambiguity
ABSTRACT. Despite the significance of repurchase agreements (repos) in market-based finance, European repo markets remain underexplored. Drawing on monetar
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
2️⃣ The second intricacy was related to the depiction of repurchase agreements (repos) in Europe and how we could make sense of the role that they played during the Eurocrisis. In consequence, we have developed a novel balance sheet methodology to conceptualize repos.
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
We present our monetary and balance-sheet interpretation in the article ‘Forging Monetary Unification through Novation. The TARGET System and the Politics of Central Banking in Europe’, published in the journal Socio-Economic Review: academic.oup.com/ser/article/...
academic.oup.com
Forging monetary unification through novation: the TARGET system and the politics of central banking in Europe
Abstract. When the European Monetary Union became effective in January 1999, the accounting treatment for claims and obligations which the Eurosystem’s Nat
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
1️⃣ The first intricacy concerned the TARGET2 system, which connects the European Central Bank with the National Central Banks, and the infamous TARGET2 imbalances that exist between them
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
But we faced two methodological challenges regarding the conceptualization of some elements of the Eurozone architecture, which forced us to make a multi-annual detour:
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
The study and the online tool are the outcome of a longer journey that started during a postdoc at @gdp-center.bsky.social funded by @dfg.de We had developed the framework for the study as early as 2021 and largely written the case study on the Global Financial Crisis in summer 2022
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
We recently published a study on the transformation of the Eurozone architecture (🔗 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers...., with Alex Goghie, Matteo Giordano & @rikereimer.bsky.social) and launched an accompanying interactive online tool (🔗 monetary-architecture.com). This is how it came to be 👇
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
You can click through two case studies: the Global Financial Crisis and the Eurocrisis, and follow step by step the balance sheet dynamics of contraction, elasticity, and innovation that emerge The tool complements our recent publication: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
A Macro-Financial Model of the Eurozone Architecture Embedded in the Global Offshore US-Dollar System
It is a convention to say that the Eurozone architecture is ill-constructed and deficient. However, monetary architecture is not a well-defined term in monetary
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
🔄 Explains how credit instruments form a self-referential system by tracing on which balance sheets they are held as assets or liabilities ✒️ Complements academic publications and helps communicate the Monetary Architecture framework for teaching, outreach activities, and policy purposes
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
What does the online tool do? ▶️ Makes the Monetary Architecture framework interactive 🕸️ Visualizes dynamic change in a web of interlocking balance sheets with a time-shift function 🏛️ Conveys how monetary architectures are historically specific and subject to permanent transformation
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
🚀 To accompany our recent study on the transformation of the Eurozone architecture, we are also launching an interactive online tool. Check out monetary-architecture.com
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
2️⃣ Creation of new off-balance-sheet fiscal agencies (OBFAs) as bad banks or suppliers of emergency elasticity 3️⃣ Re-affirmation of a reciprocal guarantee structure between central banks and treasuries as the main balance sheets at the apex of the monetary hierarchy More on this research to follow
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
The Eurozone architecture transformed mainly via three innovation types that stopped the contractions & altered the web of interlocking balance sheets: 1️⃣ Setting up new contingent instruments to pull credit instruments onto (public) balance sheets higher up in the monetary hierarchy
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
➡️ In the Eurocrisis, the funding of sovereign debt collapsed, which played out through a series of “doom loops” amplified by the Eurozone's reliance on repo markets for funding sovereign debt.
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
➡️ In the Global Financial Crisis, funding in the shadow banking system collapsed after the initial default of mortgages, with contagion across sectors and borders, escalating to a run on repo markets and offshore dollars in Europe.
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Our two case studies of the 2007-9 Global Financial Crisis and the 2009-12 Eurocrisis show: ➡️ Both crises were essentially about the inability to maintain the funding of the volume and type of credit instruments in the US and Eurozone monetary architectures.
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
✳️ Inbuilt elasticity is activated by hierarchically higher balance sheets, which deliver on guarantees and insurance to mitigate the contraction. 🌀 Innovation happens as a response to insufficient elasticity mechanisms through the creation of new instruments and institutions.
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
We develop a novel methodology that allows us to show how the "monetary architecture", understood as a web of interlocking balance sheets, transforms in crises: 🛑 Contraction spreads through the system via contagion between credit instruments – from one balance sheet to another and across borders.
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
📝 New publication 📝 We have now published our study on the Transformation of the Eurozone Architecture, co-authored with Alex Goghie, Matteo Giordano, and @rikereimer.bsky.social papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
@agutersandu.bsky.social @rikereimer.bsky.social @olanmcevoy.bsky.social @moritzkapff.bsky.social @paulstichler.bsky.social @averenasour.bsky.social @gregorlaudage.bsky.social @leon-heckmann.de
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
You can access our working paper series, YouTube channel, and data repository to see what we’ve been working on in our first project period We’ll be sharing more insights from our research about the political economy of financing large-scale transformations over the next few weeks 🔜
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
We apply these concepts on historical large-scale transformations in the 20th century, focusing on war and reconstruction finance Building on these insights from the first half of the project, we will focus for the next three years on the biggest challenge of our times: the Green Transition 🌱
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
On the website, you can explore the key concepts we apply in our research 🔑 We analyse the global economy as a hierarchically ordered web of interlocking balance sheets 🌐 We’ve developed concepts like off-balance-sheet fiscal agencies (OBFAs) which are part of our Monetary Architecture framework
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
📣 News from the OBFA-TRANSFORM project 📣 Our Emmy Noether research group is fast approaching its halfway point and we’ve recently received confirmation of funding from @dfg.de for the second project period from 2026 to 2029 🎊 That's why we are launching our new website at obfa-transform.eu
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moritz @moritzkapff.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Gemeinsam mit Armin Haas und @steffenmurau.bsky.social argumentieren wir in einer neuen Studie bei der @swp-berlin.org, dass solche Einrichtungen auch heute wieder eine Rolle spielen könnten: 👉 Link: www.swp-berlin.org/publikation/...
swp-berlin.org
Mehr Macht, weniger Markt – Denken und Handeln in der geoökonomischen Zeitenwende
Die Rückkehr von Macht auf den Markt ist das Wesensmerkmal einer geoökonomischen Zeitenwende, wie sie die internationale Politik derzeit...
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Surplus | Das Wirtschaftsmagazin @surplusmagazin.de · 31/10/2025
Nimmt der Staat zu viele Schulden auf? Ob das tragfähig ist, ist eine Frage des Finanzsystems. Das entscheidende Stichwort lautet »Fundierung«, schreiben @steffenmurau.bsky.social und Moritz Kapff.
surplusmagazin.de
Hyperinflation durch neue Schulden? 4 Sichtweisen auf nachhaltige Staatsfinanzen
Nimmt der Staat zu viele Schulden auf? Ob das tragfähig ist, ist eine Frage des Finanzsystems. Das entscheidende Stichwort lautet »Fundierung«.
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Aaron Sahr @aaronsahr.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Mit Beiträgen von @andreabinder.bsky.social @steffenmurau.bsky.social @martynalinartas.bsky.social @carolinmueller.bsky.social @larsdoepking.bsky.social @c-westermeier.bsky.social Patrick Samtlebe, Philip Manow, Janosch Prinz, Jenny Stupka, Jürgen Unger-Sirsch, Christian Neuhäuser und mehr!
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Sebastian Huhnholz @huhnholz.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
'Sondervermögen' eigener Art vormerken: Leviathan-Sonderband 2025 POLITISCHE THEORIEN ÖFFENTLICHER FINANZEN. ZUR (DE-)POLITISIERUNG VON GELD, EIGENTUM UND STEUERN, hrsg. mit Aaron Sahr & Eva Weiler und mit vielen tollen Beiträgen u.a. von…
nomos-shop.de
Politische Theorien öffentlicher Finanzen
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Die deutsche Version des Papiers findet sich hier: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
The piece draws on last year's OBFA-TRANSFORM Working Paper "State Finance Beyond the Core Budget", co-authored with @gregorlaudage.bsky.social , @agutersandu.bsky.social du.bsky.social, and Armin Haas papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
State Finance Beyond the Core Budget. Off-Balance-Sheet Fiscal Agencies in Germany's Fiscal Ecosystem <br>
The state as a fiscal actor is commonly perceived to be a unitary entity that interacts with the wider financial system via its core budget operated by the trea
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
...with countless sub-balance sheets that are historically grown and subject to permanent transformation. The German constitutional debt brake & the EU fiscal rules seek to constrain debt issuance on some balance sheets but then also define legal spaces for new OBFAs to emerge
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
We present our map of 'off-balance-sheet fiscal agencies' (OBFAs) in Germany, looking at their legal status, revenue schemes, and ways to issue debt. 👉 the state is not a single financial entity even though models and discourses tend to claim that. Instead, the state is a complex financial being...
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Steffen Murau @steffenmurau.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Very happy to see that the article @moritzecon.bsky.social and I have written on Germany's "fiscal ecosystem" has just been published online and in print in Surplus Magazine www.surplusmagazin.de/staat-schatt...
surplusmagazin.de
Das fiskalische Ökosystem
Schattenhaushalte sind keine Ausnahme, sondern seit Jahrzehnten fester Bestandteil der Staatsfinanzen. Sie spiegeln die deutsche Geschichte.
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Surplus | Das Wirtschaftsmagazin @surplusmagazin.de · 16/06/2025
🚨 Out now: Die dritte Surplus-Ausgabe »Wir kümmern uns« ist da. Neoliberale schaffen einen Staat, der die Menschen allein lässt. Doch es braucht gemeinsame Fürsorge. In den nächsten Tagen im Briefkasten, am Kiosk oder sofort online auf: 👉 www.surplusmagazin.de/surplus-3-wi...
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Jens van 't Klooster 💸💸💸 @jvtk.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Really great piece by @katie0martin.ft.com on our recent euro internationalisation paper, rightly concluding that fear of "industrial amounts of arguing" remains the EU's biggest obstacle www.ft.com/content/16e7...
ft.com
The EU needs to step up its challenge to the dollar
The euro should be developed more as a haven asset for times of market stress
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