In last Thursday’s post, John Kitchen recounted our joint work on what amount of foreign financing would be required to make consistent projections of government debt, and short and long term interest rates. That article from International Finance is now freely available on the Council on Foreign Relations website here.
Category Archives: financial markets
Measuring the consequences of the zero lower bound constraint
In a period of deleveraging such as the U.S. has been going through, it is possible for the natural rate of interest to become negative. Since cash is always an option for earning at least a yield of zero, no asset should ever pay less than zero. This lower bound of zero on nominal interest rates can put a constraint on the ability of the economy to self-correct or the Fed to provide stimulus in such a situation.
The Fed still has some tools to try to reduce longer-term yields, namely large-scale asset purchases and
signaling the Fed’s future intentions. A new research paper by Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams and Senior Research Advisor Eric Swanson proposes a creative new approach to measuring when and to what extent the zero lower bound is a relevant constraint on interest rates of any maturity.
Current economic conditions
The latest U.S. economic indicators have taken a favorable turn.
Lost Decades at ASSA/Chicago
For those of you attending the Allied Social Sciences Association (and AEA) meetings in Chicago, January 6-8, I’ll be at the W.W. Norton booth in the exhibition hall, Friday afternoon, particularly 5PM onward, ready to talk about Lost Decades: The Making of America’s Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery.
European financial tensions and the Fed
U.S. monetary policy has gone through three distinct phases since 2008. We may be about to begin the fourth.
Central banks augment currency swap capabilities
The U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, and central banks of Canada, England, Japan, and Switzerland today announced a coordinated monetary action that could provide added assistance to interbank lending in the event of a further deterioration in global financial markets. Here I offer some thoughts on what the action signifies.
Worries continue
If you’re prone to worry about where the economy’s headed, last week’s developments weren’t very reassuring.
Links for 2011-11-15
Quick summaries of a few items of interest.
Greece, Italy, and financial stability
The drama began in Greece. Where is it going to end?
IMF Book Forum: “Lost Decades: The Making of America’s Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery”
The transcript and video for the IMF Book Forum (October 14th) is now online here. Nobel Laureate George Akerlof (UC Berkeley) moderated, Diane Lim Rogers (EconomistMom, Concord Coalition) and Gail Cohen (Joint Economic Committee) were discussants, and Simon Johnson (Baseline Scenario, MIT) provided concluding comments.