Provides an in-depth overview of the Federal Reserve System, including information about monetary policy and the economy, the Federal Reserve in the international sphere, supervision and regulation, consumer and community affairs and services offered by Reserve Banks. Contains several appendixes, including a brief explanation of Federal Reserve regulations, a glossary of terms, and a list of additional publications.
In the early post-Soviet period, Ukraine appeared to be firmly on the path to democracy. But the Kuchma presidency was clouded by dark rumors of corruption and even political murder, and, by 2004, the country was in full-blown political crisis. This book looks beyond these dramatic events and aims to identify the actual play of power in Ukraine.
In the early post-Soviet period, Ukraine appeared to be firmly on the path to democracy. But the Kuchma presidency was clouded by dark rumors of corruption and even political murder, and, by 2004, the country was in full-blown political crisis. This book looks beyond these dramatic events and aims to identify the actual play of power in Ukraine.
In the early post-Soviet period, Ukraine appeared to be firmly on the path to democracy. But the Kuchma presidency was clouded by dark rumors of corruption and even political murder, and, by 2004, the country was in full-blown political crisis. This book looks beyond these dramatic events and aims to identify the actual play of power in Ukraine.
At the height of the Great Depression a number of leading U.S. economists advanced a proposal for monetary reform that became known as the Chicago Plan. It envisaged the separation of the monetary and credit functions of the banking system, by requiring 100% reserve backing for deposits. Irving Fisher (1936) claimed the following advantages for this plan: (1) Much better control of a major source of business cycle fluctuations, sudden increases and contractions of bank credit and of the supply of bank-created money. (2) Complete elimination of bank runs. (3) Dramatic reduction of the (net) public debt. (4) Dramatic reduction of private debt, as money creation no longer requires simultaneous debt creation. We study these claims by embedding a comprehensive and carefully calibrated model of the banking system in a DSGE model of the U.S. economy. We find support for all four of Fisher's claims. Furthermore, output gains approach 10 percent, and steady state inflation can drop to zero without posing problems for the conduct of monetary policy.
Controlling inflation is among the most important objectives of economic policy. By maintaining price stability, policy makers are able to reduce uncertainty, improve price-monitoring mechanisms, and facilitate more efficient planning and allocation of resources, thereby raising productivity. This volume focuses on understanding the causes of the Great Inflation of the 1970s and ’80s, which saw rising inflation in many nations, and which propelled interest rates across the developing world into the double digits. In the decades since, the immediate cause of the period’s rise in inflation has been the subject of considerable debate. Among the areas of contention are the role of monetary policy in driving inflation and the implications this had both for policy design and for evaluating the performance of those who set the policy. Here, contributors map monetary policy from the 1960s to the present, shedding light on the ways in which the lessons of the Great Inflation were absorbed and applied to today’s global and increasingly complex economic environment.
An in-depth look at how politics and economics shape the relationship between Congress and the Federal Reserve Born out of crisis a century ago, the Federal Reserve has become the most powerful macroeconomic policymaker and financial regulator in the world. The Myth of Independence marshals archival sources, interviews, and statistical analyses to trace the Fed’s transformation from a weak, secretive, and decentralized institution in 1913 to a remarkably transparent central bank a century later. Offering a unique account of Congress’s role in steering this evolution, Sarah Binder and Mark Spindel explore the Fed’s past, present, and future and challenge the myth of its independence.
The many forces that led to the economic crisis of 2008 were in fact identified, analyzed and warned against for many years before the crisis by economist Jane D�Arista, among others. Now, writing in the tradition of D�Arista's extensive work, the
Volume II of this book grew out of the author’s work as an economist for the U.S. Congress on the staff of the House Banking Committee under Chairman Wright Patman and his successor, Chairman Henry Reuss; as an analyst for the Congressional Budget Office; and as finance economist for the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Consumer Protection and Finance. It is a re-examination of the validity of traditional concerns in order to establish the Context for congressional actions to modify the existing regulatory and structural framework.
