The premise of the paper is that the fervor for foreign exchange market intervention by U.S, and European monetary authorities has ebbed in recent years. A pattern of initial belief in the effectiveness of foreign exchange market intervention has recently been eroded, as is revealed by the...

It is crucial that central banks and regulatory authorities be aware of effects of asset price inflation on the stability of the financial system. Lending activity based on asset collateral during the boom is hazardous to the health of lenders when the boom collapses. One way that authorities...

The U.S. Treasury's $20 billion loan to Mexico in January 1995 from the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) brought to public notice the fund that had functioned in obscurity since its authorization by the Gold Reserve Act of January 31, 1934. The design of the ESF, as set forth in the statute,...

The classical gold standard era from 1880 to 1914, when most countries of the world defined their currencies in terms of a fixed weight (which is equivalent to a fixed price) of gold and hence adhered to a fixed exchange rate standard, has been regarded by many observers as a most admirable...

When the spectacular devaluation of the peso occurred at the end of 1994, 91-day swap lines of credit of $3 billion each-dollars for pesos-were available to the Bank of Mexico at the Federal Reserve and the Treasury's Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF). These were known as regular swap lines. The...

Quarterly reports on Treasury and Federal Reserve foreign exchange operations ending three months earlier than the date of publication in the Federal Reserve Bulletin are available through October 1992 (issues of April, July, October 1992, and January 1993). These reports provide information on...

Since 1959 the U. S. has experienced six recessions, not counting the recession that began, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, in March 2001. If the date the latest recession ended is taken to be 12/01, in line with Chairman Greenspan?s testimony on March 7, 2002, that...

In 2000, in 20 buyback operations, the Treasury purchased a total of $30 billion of par value marketable debt that it had previously issued, with maturities ranging from 12 to 27 years. In each of the first two quarters of 2001, it will purchase, in two buyback operations per month, about $9...