Will a new, improved discount window solve our problems?
Category Archives: Federal Reserve
A curious market reaction
I’m trying to make sense of the strong reactions to yesterday’s action from the Federal Reserve.
Risk premia creeping higher
Since Halloween, financial markets seem to be getting spooked again.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae back in the news
So how worried should you be?
So now you know
As part of its ongoing efforts at helping the public understand exactly what its intentions might be, the Federal Reserve today released more detailed minutes of its October 30-31 meeting that included the Fed’s expectations for what comes next.
New research on the causes of the housing boom and bust
What are the respective contributions of national and local factors to recent changes in house prices?
Oil, gold, the dollar, and inflation
Do the ongoing surge in gold and oil prices and slide in the dollar signal a resurgence of inflation?
Does Dollar Weakness ‘Cause’ High Oil Prices?
There’s an idea floating around that asserts that the high price of oil is — at least in part — due to the weak dollar. Does this make sense?
Rules versus discretion in monetary policy
I had the privilege of attending a conference in St. Louis this week on Monetary Policy under Uncertainty at which I presented a paper on the response of interest rates to changes in the fed funds target. One of the interesting themes that came up in some of the other papers concerned whether the public’s interests are best served when monetary policy follows mechanical rules as opposed to responding to events in a discretionary way. Here I report on some of the discussion of this issue from the conference.
Deteriorating lending standards
What is the significance of the fact that the most recently issued subprime mortgages are the ones that are running into the biggest problems?