In testimony today before Congress, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke outlined his reasons why the Federal Reserve is uniquely suited to be the regulatory supervisor for U.S. banks.
Author Archives: James_Hamilton
2010 Econbrowser NCAA tournament challenge
If you’re both a very faithful and a very passive Econbrowser reader, for two years now you’ve sat on the sidelines while you watched other, equally faithful but less passive readers participate in the world-famous Econbrowser NCAA Tournament Challenge, in which brave souls pretend they can predict a significant number of the winners of the games of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. If so, here’s your third chance to sit on the sidelines again, or maybe even to participate this time.
The challenges ahead for world oil
University of Leeds Professor Joyce Dargay and New York University Professor Dermot Gately have a new research paper suggesting that projections from the DOE, IEA, and OPEC are underestimating the challenges ahead for meeting world oil demand.
Modeling problems in credit markets
On Friday I joined fellow blogger Mark Thoma (and a good many other economists) at a very interesting conference on financial markets held at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Here I share some ideas I expressed at the conference about the directions I feel this research ought to go.
A new index of financial conditions
What do current financial indicators tell us about where the economy is headed?
Crawling forward
Another month of weakly improving auto sales.
What drives media slant?
University of Chicago professors Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro propose an answer.
Treasury Supplementary Financing Program (SFP)
The SFP, the U.S. Treasury’s program for assisting with the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve, is making a sudden and dramatic comeback.
The Fed’s discount rate hike
The Federal Reserve Board announced on Thursday that it is raising the interest rate at which banks borrow from the Fed’s discount window to 0.75%, a 25-basis-point increase, and intends to return discount lending primarily to the traditional overnight loans.
“The rate hike cycle begins,” declared 24/7 Wall St, and
Business Week reported:
Treasuries fell, pushing yields to the highest levels in at least five weeks, amid concern the Federal Reserve’s increase in the discount rate signaled policy makers are moving closer to lifting benchmark borrowing costs.
But I don’t believe that’s what the discount rate hike means at all.
The new normal
Also included in Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke’s statement to Congress last week were some guidelines for what we might expect Federal Reserve decisions and communications to look like as we make the gradual adjustment to more normal conditions.