As noted by Calculated Risk and William Polley, the last few days we’ve seen the return of slightly more normal behavior in the overnight market for fed funds.
One perspective on approaching the current situation
Since Jim laid out some of the proposals for addressing the mortgage problem, I thought I’d put in my two cents worth.
Solutions to the mortgage problem
Quick links to a few of the suggestions out there on what to do about pending mortgage defaults.
A disappearing budget deficit, if…
The CBO has released its budget and economic outlook update.
San Diego plans for the future
With all the excitement over the last few weeks, I never had a chance to mention this remarkable account of the long-run vision of San Diego’s City Council.
Latest economic indicators
New home sales picked up in July, and new orders for durable and capital goods grew strongly. But that was then and this is now.
How does China retain monetary autonomy?
As I discussed in earlier posts, China retains some policy autonomy by virtue of the presence of capital controls. A recent working paper by Ma and McCauley attempts to quantify how binding the controls are.
Whee!
Who knew holding short-term Treasuries could be so exciting?
Worse than 1998?
From IDEAGlobal, FX Alert, August 21:
What does the cut in the Fed’s discount rate signal?
Some analysts, and perhaps the market, seemed to view Friday’s cut in the Federal Reserve discount rate as a first step in lowering interest rates generally. That view may prove to be correct, though I’m inclined to look first for an explanation in terms of the narrow tactical challenges of managing current liquidity needs.