Financial derivatives have harmed or destroyed numerous financial firms, nonfinancial firms, and municipalities in 1994 and 1995. This paper discusses the dangers of derivatives and also their benefits. It then considers policies that will maintain the benefits while containing the risks. These...

The performance of the U.S. economy between 1994 and 1998 was so good that some pundits began to call for the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates to depress economic activity and reduce asset prices. Using a combination of methods the author argues that slowing the economy to stabilize...

We use a multi-factor asset pricing model to investigate whether fluctuations in industry stock returns are due to industry stock returns are due to industry-specific shocks or to monetary and other macroeconomic factors. We find that common factors explain a substantial portion of the variation...

Boudoukh, Richardson, and Whitelaw (BRW) presented theoretical and empirical evidence explaining the expected inflation/stock return correlation. In concluding they stated that whether monetary policy has real effects is an open question. This paper addresses this question by examining how BRW's...