How to best manage the failure of systemically important financial firms was the theme of a recent conference at which the latest research on the issue was presented. Here we summarize that research, the discussions that it sparked, and the areas where considerable work remains.

The Federal Reserve System is America’s uneasy compromise between our dislike of concentrated financial power and our desire to promote efficiency in our national payments system. In fact, the Federal Reserve is the nation’s third attempt to establish a large national bank—what we now call...

A deposit-pricing survey and comparison of 112 depository institutions in the Fourth Federal Reserve District, covering MMDAs, Super-NOWS, and CDs in an examination of the effect of interest-rate deregulation on banks and thrifts.

An analysis of the institutional design of the Federal Reserve System, stating that the central bank should be given a clear legislative mandate to achieve price-level stability and financial market efficiency, along with the independence and accountability necessary to realize these goals.

The primary objective of most of the world's central banks these days is to keep inflation low, and the range of inflation rates banks find acceptable appears to be around 2.5 to 3.5 percent. While banks may have hit on this range through trial and error, economic theory and empirical...

An argument that recent growth in the number of banking offices (head offices plus their branches) does not necessarily mean that banking services have increased.

An assertion that central banks can promote long-term investment and stable economic growth only by guaranteeing price stability and that a coordinated global easing of monetary policies would damage central-bank credibility and jeopardize progress against inflation.

A discussion of how higher levels of central bank independence are associated with lower and more stable rates of inflation and why central bank autonomy is critical in a world where most governments are unwilling to hold themselves publicly accountable for price stability.

Monetary policy rules help central banks exercise the discipline necessary to achieve their long-term goals. The type of rule many banks are turning to these days is inflation targeting, which has several advantages. But because banks base their actions on forecasts of future inflation,...

An analysis of deposit holdings of commercial banks and thrifts in the Fourth Federal Reserve District to determine the deposit growth and shifting that resulted from introduction of Super-NOWs and MMDAs.