According to the classical view, an economy's lender of last resort should be its central bank. For brief periods of time, the bank might suspend convertibility in order to provide the liquidity needed to support the domestic credit market. Recent experience of financial crises demonstrates the...

A structural rational expectations model of U.S. monetary policy is used to make a counterfactual experiment of a strongly inflation averse Federal Reserve Bank. Results for U.S. interest rates, output, and inflation over 1965-1999 are discussed. -- Optimal monetary policy ; rational...