Faced with increased unemployment, declining productivity and weak public finances, most OECD countries have adopted policies of fiscal consolidation and structural reform in goods, labour and financial markets. Price stability is now at hand, but ...
The April 2012 Global Financial Stability Report assesses changes in risks to financial stability over the past six months, focusing on sovereign vulnerabilities, risks stemming from private sector deleveraging, and assessing the continued resilience of emerging markets. The report probes the implications of recent reforms in the financial system for market perception of safe assets, and investigates the growing public and private costs of increased longevity risk from aging populations.
Technological, economic, and regulatory changes are some of the driving forces in the modern world of finance. For instance, financial markets now trade twenty-four hours a day and securities are increasingly being traded via real-time computer-based systems in contrast to trading floor-based systems. Equally important, new security forms and pricing models are coming into existence in response to changes in domestic and international regulatory action. Accounting and risk management systems now enable financial and investment firms to manage risk more efficiently while meeting regulatory concerns. The challenge for academics and practitioners alike is how to keep themselves, and others, current with these changing markets, as well as the technology and current investment and risk management tools. Applications in Finance, Investments, and Banking offers presentations by twelve leading investment professionals and academics on a wide range of finance, investment and banking issues. Chapters include analysis of the basic foundations of financial analysis, as well as current approaches to managing risk. Presentations also include reviews of the means of measuring the volatility of the underlying return process and how investment performance measurement can be used to better understand the benefits of active management. Finally, articles also present advances in the pricing of the new financial assets (e.g., swaps), as well as the understanding of the factors (e.g., earnings estimates) affecting pricing of the traditional assets (e.g., stocks). Applications in Finance, Investments, and Banking provides beneficial information to the understanding of both traditional and modern approaches of financial and investment management.
Two years ago, the Guido Carli Association, in collaboration with the Aspen Institute Italia, charged a group of distinguished economists to examine the problems created by the unsatisfactory functioning of the International Monetary System. The two resulting conferences were sponsored by the Fondazione della Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze (CESIFIN) and the Permanent Advisory Committee on the Euro and the Dollar (PACE&D). Their research had a two-fold aim. The first was an examination of the basic function of the International Monetary System with a special focus on the role the Euro would and should have. The second was the preparation of a list of recommendations on how to resolve the problems, financial problems in particular, affecting the entire world community. Last year, the group focused on efforts taking place in diverse financial institutions and universities to construct what has been called the `New International Financial Architecture'. This group considered the legal problems arising from European and international integration and, more generally, from the new architecture of the International Monetary System. This book, The New Architecture of the International Monetary System, is the final result of their efforts. It will be an invaluable resource for academics, professionals, and students alike.
Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect at the start of 1994, production and trade in goods and services have become ever more integrated in the region. Banking and financial systems thus also must increasingly inform, adjudicate, transact, invest, insure, and intermedi ate all across North America. Presently, however, there is no single, or up to-date source of information on the banking and finance systems of the current NAFTA countries-Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Relying on top specialists from international financial organizations, central banks, regulatory authorities, and universities, this and a companion volume together bridge that information gap. The focus is not just on description but on regulatory and institution-building challenges posed by the opening up of domestic financial markets, and on the political economy of reforms. The ultimate goal is to enhance the process of safe and efficient integration by policies, regulations, and private initiatives that contribute to the welfare of people in North America and beyond. This volume goes into essential detail in assessing banking and finance regulations, supervision, and prudential and operating standards in the NAFTA countries in a global context.
The Global Financial Stability Report examines current risks facing the global financial system and policy actions that may mitigate these. It analyzes the key challenges facing financial and nonfinancial firms as they continue to repair their balance sheets. Chapter 2 takes a closer look at whether sovereign credit default swaps markets are good indicators of sovereign credit risk. Chapter 3 examines unconventional monetary policy in some depth, including the policies pursued by the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Contains the papers presented at the international conference "Interactions between structural reform, macroeconomic policies and economic performance" & summarises discussions held. Part of the follow-up programme of work [from] the OECD jobs study. - On cover: OECD proceedings
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.