In January 2005, after more than three years of sluggish employment growth, the U.S. economy finally recovered the jobs lost during the 2001 recession. Baffled by such a delayed rebound in payrolls, many speculated about the cause. Inevitably, observers compared the 2001 and 1991 recoveries,...

Most analysts believe the U.S. economy is now recovering from the recession. Yet businesses continue to lay off workers, prompting The New York Times to dub this "the worst hiring slump in 20 years." Market analysts and economists have a different name for what is happening. They call it a...

The Internet is often referred to as the world’s largest mall. About half of all adults in the United States have made a purchase online. Worldwide, online shopping is considerably greater—and cybershopping is expected to continue to grow as more households become connected to the Internet...

Earlier this year, several bills were introduced in Congress to curb what many consumer advocates have described as abusive credit card practices. These bills were intended to keep credit card issuers from penalizing consumers for paying their card balances in full each month. In unveiling one...

With the year 2000 rapidly approaching, stored-value cards are already popular in some countries and are being introduced into the United States by private companies. Stored-value cards are one form of electronic cash—electronic substitutes for paper currency. Digital cash (also known as...

Experience suggests that in times of rising inflation and interest rates, political support emerges for the use of credit controls. In the U.S., such controls were last used in 1980. This article examines the 1980 controls and argues that the program had unintended and unforeseen effects that...

Recent survey results from the Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey indicate that, on net, many banks tightened their loan standards during 1990 and early 1991. This article investigates the implications of these results by comparing them to survey responses from previous periods.

The authors present a theoretical model in which a profit-maximizing lender may ration credit to businesses by restricting loan size. Such credit rationing occurs despite the absence of differences across borrowers in default risk or loan administration costs. Moreover, the model predicts an...

Identity theft has been a feature of financial markets for as long as alternatives have existed to cash transactions. But identity theft has recently occurred on a much larger scale. Data breaches often involve the apparent loss or acknowledged theft of the personal identifying information of...